Literature

"There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so." - William Shakespeare, Hamlet

"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain" - William Shakespeare, Hamlet

"It faded on the crowing of the cock. 
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Savior's birth is celebrated
This bird of dawning singeth all night long
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm
so hallowed and so gracious is that time."
-William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"

"For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion." - William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing.

"...when there is music, there cannot be anything evil." - Cervantes, "Don Quixote"

"Moderation is essential for the enjoyment of everything." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so." -Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979).

"It is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto nonexistent blindingly obvious." - Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)

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"As truth is gathered, I rearrange." - Yes, "Perpetual Change"  (1971)

"You can blow out a candle, but you can't blow out a fire.
Once the flames begin to catch, the wind will blow it higher" - Peter Gabriel, "Biko" (1980)

"I don't think there are any Russians
And there ain't no Yanks
Just corporate criminals playin' with tanks"
- The Call, "The Walls Came Down" (1983)

"Love's the only engine of survival." - Leonard Cohen, "The Future" (1992)

"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen, "Anthem" (1992)

"Democracy is coming to the U.S.A." - Leonard Cohen, "Democracy" (1992)

"I haven't been this happy since the end of World War II." - Leonard Cohen, "Waiting for the Miracle" (1992)

"Do your best and don't worry." - Morrissey, "Do Your Best and Don't Worry" (1992)

"We live to survive our paradoxes." - The Tragically Hip, "Springtime in Vienna." (1996)

"No one leaves you when they live in your heart and mind." - Marillion, "Estonia" (1997)

"You can try the best you can, the best you can is good enough." - Radiohead, "Optimistic" (2000)

"We're not scaremongering, this is really happening." - Radiohead, "Idioteque" (2000)

"Worrying is interest paid on trouble, long before it's due." - Steve Hackett, "Serpentine Song" (2003)

"Believe in all the good things you keep inside, there is no freedom in life without freedom of mind." - The Fire Theft, "Sinatra" (2003)

"...every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time." - Death Cab for Cutie, "What Sarah Said" (2005)

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"The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves." - Plato

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” — Theodore Roosevelt

"We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of few. But we can't have both." - Louis Brandeis

"The responsibility of ministers for the public safety is absolute, and requires no mandate. It is in fact the prime object for which governments come into existence." -- Winston Churchill

"What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal"... they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal,' then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal.'"  - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and the justice in our country and in our world. Politics is about doing well for people." -Senator Paul Wellstone (1944-2002)

"...We live in fictitious times. We live in a time when we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons..." Michael Moore, Academy Award acceptance speech for "Bowling for Columbine," March 23, 2003.

"If you observe (Bush), it's quite amusing. If you listen to him as he speaks, if you follow him closely, it would provide you a great many laughs. But it's the perfect example of islands of comedy, comic moments against a very, very tragic background." -Woody Allen, September 17, 2004

"...this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man." - E. L. Doctorow, "The Unfeeling President," September 9, 2004

"Whether you call them ideals or moral values, there are a number of basic principles that I believe the Democratic Party should stand up and fight for. Here are a few: a livable wage is a moral value. Affordable health care is a moral value. A decent education is a moral value. A common sense foreign policy is a moral value. A healthy environment is a moral value. The feeling of community that comes from full participation in our democracy is a moral value. It is a moral value to make sure that we do not saddle our children and grandchildren with our debt." - Howard Dean, 2005

"The danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little." - President Barack Obama, September 9, 2009

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"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." - Luke 6:31

"Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and not behold the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." - Matthew 7:3-5

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God" - Matthew 5:9.

"When I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things." - I Corinthians 13:11

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." - I Corinthians 13:12-14 

"Our moral, political and economic responsibilities do not stop at the moment of birth...Those who defend the right to life of the weakest among us must be equally visible in support of the quality of life of the powerless among us: the old and the young, the hungry and the homeless, the undocumented immigrant and the unemployed worker. ... Consistency means we can't have it both ways." - Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, 1984

"The earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy its use by future generations." - Pope John Paul II, 1987

"..To choose life involves rejecting every form of violence: the violence of poverty and hunger which oppresses so many human beings; the violence of armed conflict, which does not resolve but only increases divisions and tensions; the violence of particularly abhorrent weapons such as anti-personnel mines; the violence of drug trafficking; the violence of racism; and the violence of mindless damage to the natural environment."
Pope John Paul II, 1999

"When war, as in these days in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and decisive voice, that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society. Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of man." - Pope John Paul II, 2003

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 Sports

"This is what the greatest thing about sports is: You play to win the game.  Hello, you play to win the game. I don't care if you don't have any wins, you go play to win. When you start telling me it doesn't matter, then retire, get out, because it matters." - Herman Edwards, New York Jets head coach, October 30, 2002

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"The dog has the soul of a philosopher." - Plato

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." - Will Rogers

"... my friends, even if it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go on out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures; sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music; sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry; sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.'" - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The time is always right to do what is right.”  - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Yeah, I'm happy... Someone has given us money to stick the phrase 'hail to the thief' on walls all around the world. That made me chuckle for ages." -Thom Yorke, Radiohead (Blender, September 2003)

"My God, the religious right will not acknowledge what a merciful person Jesus was." - Kurt Vonnegut, 2003

"God invented dogs for us, to give us the kind of uncompromising love that human beings need, and we in turn give them the same kind of love." - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), February 2009

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