“Quite simply, there can be no true democracy unless the citizens of a country realize that they are sovereign, that they are the main protagonists, and then with wisdom and a strong sense of responsibility take action based on that realization. Democracy cannot be successful in its mission unless the people rouse themselves to become more informed and involved, unless they unite, unless they establish an unshakable force for justice and keep a strict eye on the activities of the powerful.” ~ Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda, a Buddhist philosopher, educator, author, and anti-nuclear activist. From his book “For Today & Tomorrow”

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“The boxer known for running his mouth became a humanitarian who did not have to say a word. Referring to his Parkinson’s disease, which so diminished Ali’s voice, [Louisville resident] Diana Rupa said, ‘God had to shut him up, so that we could hear his heart.’ ” ~ Muhammad Ali Remembered, by Those Who Knew Him as Cassius, By KAREN CROUSE, JUNE 5, 2016 (NY Times)

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“I ask you all, please, to pray for me, and if there are among you any who do not believe or cannot pray, I ask you please to send good wishes my way.” ~ POPE FRANCIS, speaking through an interpreter to a huge crowd that had gathered on the West Lawn of the Capitol to watch his address to Congress. (September 24, 2015)

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“The original thinker — the innovator — mustn’t mind seeming a little foolish to his contemporaries. He must always look to his star. … In the end, he may still fail; that’s unimportant. If he is true to himself, he won’t be too unhappy or embittered, even in failure, and will still speak for what is good. You will remember that , young man.” ~ William Fox-Talbot (Basil Sydney)  to William Friese-Greene (Robert Donat), in “The Magic Box“(1951). Writing credits: Ray Allister (based on the biography: Friese-Greene, Close-Up of an Inventor) and Eric Ambler (Screenplay)

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“In my work with the defendants [at the Nuremberg Trials, 1945-1949] I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men.  Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”  ~ Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials http://www.crisispapers.org/essays8p/empathy.htm (For attribution, I found this information here. Thanks to edwinrutsch3.)___________________________________________

“On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.” ~ The Narrator, “Fight Club” (1999)

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“United we bargain; divided we beg!” ~ Union solidarity quote of unknown origin. Earliest dated mention I could find is from 2007. There are many variations of this quote, but the version I cited above is my favorite. Sometimes stated as, “Alone we beg, together we bargain.”

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“Who’s interested in principles? What gets you elected is where you stand on issues. And that’s a shame, because issues change, but principles don’t. When you know a man’s character, you know where he’ll stand on any issue.” ~ James P. Hogan, “RealTime Interrupt(1995)” , as the character Joe Corrigan (ca. page 215).

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[From] ‏@Bonoboism 28 Nov 2011: [To] @TheRealRoseanne You know what they say, give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, give a man a bank and he can rob the world. 3:26 PM – 28 Nov 11 via web

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 “The thing that a lot of people cannot comprehend is that The Universe doesn’t have a bullet with your name on it. It has millions of bullets inscribed with, ‘To whom it may concern.'” ~ Unknown, referring to NEOs (Near Earth Objects)

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“You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out God hates all the same people you do.” ~ From the book Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott, a book I read a month ago. The quote is from a friend of hers, who she quotes early in the book.

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“Ninety-nine percent of the world’s lovers are not with their first choice. That’s what makes the jukebox play.” ~ Willie Nelson

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I said: “You must pay a lot of taxes”. She said: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”^[11] ~ Elizabeth Baum, former housekeeper to Helmsley (October 1983)

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Quotes below are from: www.probability.ca/jeff/nonwork/quotes.html+%22I+love+humanity.+It’s+people+I+can’t+stand.%22+quote&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

“I love humanity. It’s people I can’t stand.” — the character Linus, in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” — St. Augustine

“Simplify, simplify, simplify.” — Henry David Thoreau

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon, Beautiful Boy

“Happiness isn’t doing what you like, it’s liking what you do.” — source unknown

“Nor is it strange / That after changes upon changes, we are more or less the same” — Paul Simon, The Boxer (later version)

“It has been said that to write is to live forever. The man who said that is dead.” — Tina Fey and Steve Martin, at the 2009 Academy Awards

“Before you criticise someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes.” — Jack Handey

“I use as many notes as I require — neither more nor less.” — the Mozart character, in the movie Amadeus

“You may find that having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.” — the character Spock, in the Star Trek (TOS) episode Amok Time

“Their lives ran in circles so small / They thought they’d seen it all” — Michelle Shocked, Memories of East Texas

“Of course, if you photograph the behavior of women and men at a particular time in history, in a particular situation, you will capture differences. But the error lies in inferring that a snapshot is a lasting picture. What women and men do at a moment in time tells us nothing about what women and men are in some unvarying sense – or about what they can be.” — Carol Tavris, The Mismeasure of Woman

“Within weeks of our premiere, it became obvious that Leonard [Nimoy] and the character of Spock were becoming something of a national phenomenon. … And to be unflatteringly frank, it bugged me. … [Then, Gene Roddenberry] said to me the wisest thing he could possibly have uttered. He said, `Don’t ever fear having good and popular people around you, because they can only enhance your own performance. The more you can play to these people, the better the show.'” — William Shatner, Star Trek Memories

“More and more people are becoming unable to accept traditional [religious] beliefs. If they think that, apart from these beliefs, there is no reason for kindly behaviour, the results may be needlessly unfortunate. That is why it is important to show that no supernatural reasons are needed to make [people] kind and to prove that only through kindness can the human race achieve happiness.” — Bertand Russell, The Faith of a Rationalist

“A lot of people here have been asking me if I’m going to apply myself when I go back to school next September. It’s such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean, how do you know what you’re going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don’t. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it’s a stupid question.” — the character Holden Caulfield, in the book The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger.

“And in the end / The love you take / Is equal to the love you make” — The Beatles, The End (Abbey Road album)