no. 934

 

no. 933

 

no. 932

 

no. 931

 "The literature of imagination, even when tragic, is reassuring, not necessarily in the sense of offering nostalgic comfort, but because it offers a world large enough to contain alternatives and therefore offers hope." 

Ursula K. LeGuin, “The Critics, the Monsters, and the Fantasists"

no. 930

 “I have loved books all my life. There is nothing more beautiful in our material world than the book.” 

Patti Smith, born on this day in 1946

no. 929

 War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other’s children. 

 Jimmy Carter, December 2002, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

no. 928

 “I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

- James Baldwin

no. 927

 

no. 926

 

no. 925

 “If you want Peace, work for Justice.” 

Pope Saint Paul VI, 1 January 1972

no. 924

 

no. 923

 

Have I posted this before? Don’t care. 

no. 922

 

no. 921

 

no. 920

 "To sit in solitude, to think in solitude with only the music of the stream and the cedar to break the flow of silence, there lies the value of wilderness." 

John Muir

no. 919

 “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” 

John Muir, who died on this day in 1914

no. 918

“I don’t rightly know what comes after this life. Heaven, hell, reincarnation, or maybe nothing…but I think we spend too much time wondering what our reward will be in the next life while we let the days of this life slip like so much water through our hands.”

Leland Dirks

no. 917

 “I am not the champion of lost causes, but the champion of causes not yet won.”

Norman Thomas, who died on this day in 1968

no. 916

 “There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”

 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

no. 915

 

no. 914

 “We have enough money in this world to feed every man, woman, and child. But we'll never have enough money on this planet to satiate the insatiable appetite of billionaires.”

Unknown from social media. 

no. 913

 “Chili is one of those things like gumbo where there’s an infinite number of ways to make it and almost all of them are great. Unfortunately, the great debate over chili remains: beans or no beans? For that of course, we can thank Texas, which is usually at the heart of bad food opinions. In this case, it’s the Lonestar position that beans do not belong in chili, and we can only assume that it is because of this stance that the state has been cursed with Greg Abbott.”

Jason Herbert’s article on chili (w/ recipe), “Texas Can’t Save You But I Can”

no. 912

 

no. 911

“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends, and I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that.”

John Lennon 

no. 910

 

no. 909

 "Most people I've met who weren't kind to animals weren't kind to people, either. Kindness is kindness. Simple as that."

~Ricky Gervais

no. 908

 "Our greatest strength is the power of our example, not just the example of our power." 

President Joe Biden (b. 20 Nov 1942)

no. 907

 “A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”

Joseph Conrad, novelist (3 Dec 1857-1924)

no. 906

 “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. 

It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”

James Baldwin

no. 905

 "The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character." 

Margaret Chase Smith, born on this day in 1897

no. 904

 

no. 903

 “The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”

 Bertrand Russell

no. 902

 “Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily crack’d, and never well mended.”

- Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1750

no. 901

 

no. 900

 

no. 899

“People hate their own art because it looks like they made it. They think if they get better, it will stop looking like they made it. A better person made it. But there's no level of skill beyond which you stop being you. You hate the most valuable thing about your art.“

Elicia Donze (@elicia.bsky.social) 

no. 898

 “And those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not hear the music.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

no. 897

 Ain't nothin' to it

but to do it.

~ Ronnie Coleman

no. 896

 Non-compliance is a social skill. It's only "bad" if you're looking at it from the perspective of someone who seeks to control or restrict.

If you want your kid to become a healthy person with the power to self-advocate, it's crucial they know how to stand up for themselves & say "no"

- Ruti Regan

no. 895

 "The most striking difference between ancient and modern sophists is that the ancients were satisfied with a passing victory of the argument at the expense of truth, whereas the moderns want a more lasting victory at the expense of reality."  

-- Hannah Arendt, page 9 of Origins of Totalitarianism 

no. 894

 "A ship in port is safe,

     but

           that's not what

 ships are built for."

- Grace Hopper, born today 1906

no. 893

 Kindness is like snow. It beautifies everything it covers.

~ Kahlil Gibran

no. 892

 

no. 891

 "As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind--every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder." 

John Glenn, who died on this day in 2016

no. 890

 “If this is your god, he's not very impressive. He's got many psychological problems. He's so insecure, he demands worship every seven days. He creates faulty humans and blames them for his own mistakes. He's a pretty poor excuse for a supreme being.”

—Spock

no. 889

 “You can jail a Revolutionary, but you can't jail the Revolution. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win. If you dare not struggle, then damn it, you don't deserve to win.”

 ~Fred Hampton Jr., Assassinated on Dec 4th, 1969. By the Chicago PD and the FBI.

no. 888

 “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

-- James Baldwin, who died #OTD 1987

no. 887

 "To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. . . . Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph."

Mark Twain

no. 886

 “Music is one of the most fantastic things. Almost like fire, and water, and air. It's like a thing. And it does so much. It does a thing for the intellect, it does a thing for the emotions. And a certain kind of music can swell the heart to almost burst. Tears of happiness flow out of your eyes. You can't believe the beauty that comes. And it comes from these notes."

David Lynch in the film Beatles 64

no. 885

 "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." 

Helen Keller

no. 884

“There is a common belief that there is an ideological ‘center’— a large group of ‘moderate’ voters either with a consistent ideology of their own or lined up left to right on the issues or forming a ‘mainstream’, all with the same positions on issues.

In fact, the so-called center is actually made up of biconceptuals — people who are conservative in some aspects of life and progressive in others. Voters who self-identify as ‘conservative’ often have significant progressive values in important areas of life. We should address these ‘partial progressive’ biconceptuals through their progressive identities, which are often systematic and extensive.

A common mistaken ideology has convinced many progressives that they must ‘move to the right’ to get more votes. But this is counterproductive. By moving to the right, progressives actually help activate the right's values and give up on their own. In the process, they also alienate their own base.

George Lakoff, from “Twelve Communication Traps Democrats and Progressives Must Avoid.” 

no. 883

 “The universe contains any amount of horrible ways to be woken up,  such as the noise of the mob breaking down the front door, the scream of fire engines, or the realization that today is the Monday which on Friday night was a comfortably long way off. 

A dog's wet nose is not strictly speaking the worst of the bunch, but it has its own peculiar dreadfulness which connoisseurs of the ghastly and dog owners everywhere have come to know and dread. It's like having a small piece of defrosting liver pressed lovingly against you.”

From Terry Pratchett’s novel Moving Pictures

no. 882

 “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.” 

Peter Brook, The Empty Space Atheneum (New York, 1968)

no. 881

 “That might sound odd, I guess, but there’s something satisfyingly… apparent about hanging yourself on a wall. Be it a trophy taken from war, a great beast, or just a really nice picture, what you put on your walls is your declaration to the world, the words you speak to whoever can hear you.”

From Sam Sykes’ novel Seven Blades In Black

no. 880

 “Religion attaches to heaven an idea of equality which prevents the rich from being slaughtered by the poor.”

Napoleon Bonaparte, March 4, 1806, during a meeting of the national committee

no. 879

 

no. 878

 

Excerpt from Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny:"

no. 877

 “This process includes the replacement of all first-rate talents, regardless of their political loyalties, with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is the best guarantee of their loyalty.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, renewed version, A Harvest Book New York, 1976, 339

no. 876

 “Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.”

Albus Dumbledore.

(Yes, I know it’s J.K.Rowling)

no. 875

 “Let me remind you: Surrender means Russian occupation. Russian occupation means torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, denial of your identity, forcible adoption of your own children, filtration camps, and mass graves. Occupation is just another form of the war.”

Oleksandra Matviichuk

no. 874

 “I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.”

Harper Lee

no. 873

 

no. 872

 “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist”

- Robert Jones Jr.

no. 871

 “Those who walk a hundred miles should consider themselves halfway there at the ninety-ninth.”

Possibly an old Eastern saying.

no. 870

 “Kick at the darkness, until it bleeds daylight.” 

Bruce Cockburn.

no. 869

 

no. 868

 “For every complex problem there is a solution which is clear, simple and wrong.” 

H L Mencken

no. 867

 "Try to realize that you don’t have to annihilate yourself in the face of cultural annihilation. Hold onto who you are and try not to be afraid to live your truth in the midst of an avalanche of toxic bullshit." 

Marc Maron

no. 866

 “What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really appear to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. That’s all. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts. Those who were making it in England, for example, did not get on the Mayflower. That’s how the country was settled. Not by Gary Cooper. Yet we have a whole race of people, a whole republic, who believe the myths to the point where even today they select political representatives, as far as I can tell, by how closely they resemble Gary Cooper. Now this is dangerously infantile, and it shows in every level of national life.”

James Baldwin in a Talk to Teachers working in the New York Public School System on October 16, 1963 discussing the American Identity

no. 865

 

no. 864

 

no. 863

 

Barbara Kinsolving

no. 862

 

no. 861

 "I had placed my stick on the table, as I do every evening. It had been specially made to suit my height, to enable me to walk without too much difficulty. As I was standing up, a customer called: 'Monsieur, don't forget your pencil.' 

It was very unkind, but most funny."

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

It’s important to be able to laugh at yourself, but it’s also important to recognize when people are being assholes. 

no. 860

 

Langston Hughes

no. 859

 “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”

Proverbs 26:11

no. 858

 

no. 857

 “ A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles,” 

Thomas Jefferson

no. 856

 “The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.” 

T.H. White: The Once and Future King 

no. 855

 “There is no hope but us. 

There is no mercy but us. 

There is no justice. 

There is just us…

All things that are, are ours. 

But we must care. 

For if we do not care, we do not exist.” 

~Terry Pratchett

no. 854

 

“All wars are class wars.”

@socialiststeve6 on Twitter

no. 853

 

no. 852

 If you can keep your head while all those about you are losing theirs, then perhaps you have misunderstood the situation. 

- Graffiti on the side of the Flushing Street Temple of Eris in New York 9

from Daniel Keys Morgan’s novel “The Long Run”

no. 851

 “One seventh of your life,” he said politely, “will be spent on Mondays.”

Trent The Uncatchable in Daniel Keys Morgan’s “The Long Run”

no. 850

 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Jesus in Matthew 6: 5-6

no. 849

 

no. 848

 

no. 847

…”and like any other secret society, the local chapter meetings seemed mainly composed of extremely long rituals of little consequence run by the loudest gentleman in the room, whose pomp and circumstance existed in inverse proportion to his intelligence.”

from Gail Carriger’s “Ambush or Adore”

no. 846

 “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.” 

Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), writer and Auschwitz survivor

no. 845

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Matthew 7:14-16

no. 844

 

no. 843

 A rabbi was asked by one of his students “Why did God create atheists?” 

After a long pause, the rabbi finally responded with a soft but sincere voice. “God created atheists” he said, “to teach us the most important lesson of them all – the lesson of true compassion. 

You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching. 

He does not believe that God commanded him to perform this act. In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his actions are based on his sense of morality. Look at the kindness he bestows on others simply because he feels it to be right. When someone reaches out to you for help. 

You should never say ‘I’ll pray that God will help you.’ Instead, for that moment, you should become an atheist – imagine there is no God who could help, and say ‘I will help you’.”

— Martin Buber, “Tales of the Hasidim”

no. 842

 

no. 841

 

no. 840

 

no. 839

 

no. 838

 

no. 837

 Demanding that the Bible be taught in public schools and the Ten Commandments be posted on their walls while not even holding your preferred politicians accountable to either of them is the height of hypocrisy.

Rev. Benjamin Cremer

no. 836

 "If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values, because you don't.”

- Jimmy Carter

no. 835

 “If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. It’s your job to look out the window and find out which is true.” 

Unknown journalist 

no. 834

 

no. 833

 

no. 832

 “There are no pockets in a shroud.”

Irish saying. 

no. 831

 “You do not invite a cat. You offer to a cat. There is no rushing or forcing of a cat, without consequence. Even for an indoor cat freedom is very important to them. Its usually a reason they will stay at an open doorway, its not about going through, its about knowing the option is there.”

Ryan Cass, discussing a character in the ch 25 comment section of the manga Isekai Craft Gurashi Jiyu Kimamana Seisan Shoku No Honobono Slow Life as presented on the Mangakalot site. 

no. 830

 

no. 829

 

no. 828

 "A small child once said to me: 'You don't draw Bugs Bunny, you draw pictures of Bugs Bunny.’ That’s a very profound observation because it means he thinks the characters are alive, which, as far as I am concerned, is true.’'  

Chuck Jones (1912-2002) was born on this date.

no. 827

 "Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people..and he's clearly having a very hard time processing that."

--Kamala Harris

no. 826

 Bill Maher, proving that even a stopped clock can be right twice a day. 

no. 825

 “To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.”

- Oscar Wilde

no. 824