Backward

History, like nature, knows no jumps, except the jump backward, maybe.
--Robert Penn Warren

In A Nutshell

It is the strange thing about this church. It is obsessed with sex, absolutely obsessed. Now, they will say that we, with our permissive society and our rude jokes, are obsessed. No. We have a healthy attitude. We like it. It's fun, it's jolly; because it's a primal urge it can be dark and dangerous and difficult---it's a bit like food, in that respect, only even more exciting. The only people who are obsessed with food are anorexics and the morbidly obese, and that, in erotic terms, is the Catholic Church in a nutshell.
--Stephen Fry

Dream Letter

A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read.
--The Talmud

Monkees Fan Club

Considering that it's an artificial movement generated around a cheap media persona, declaring yourself a supporter of the Tea Party is a bit like being a proud member of a Monkees Fan Club.
--Devilstower

Acceptance

Happiness can exist only in acceptance.
--George Orwell

The Whole

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.
--Jiddu Krishnamurti

Fixes Itself

The real slogan should be "Save the humans," because it's our own extinction that is the real threat, not damage to the planet, which fixes itself.
--DoubleHelix

One Shred

I wish someone would give me one shred of neutral evidence that financial innovation has led to economic growth--one shred of evidence.
--Paul Volcker

One Of The Worst

I felt sad and depressed at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though their cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought.
--Ulysses S. Grant

Minority or Majority

It comes down to this in the end--the minority of the living, a mere 6.7 billion people on a fragile planet, and the majority of the dead, numberless and stretching back over an expanse vaster than the iciest steppe. Do you choose the minority or the majority? For whose account do you labor?
--Roger Cohen

Changed My Mind

That's a conundrum, isn't it? I don't know what to say. Maybe I don't want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security. I didn't look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I've changed my mind.
--Jodine White (Tea Party supporter; New York Times, April 15, 2010)

Twitter

Twitter is crack for media addicts. It scares me, not because I'm morally superior to it, but because I don't think I could handle it. I'm afraid I'd end up letting my son go hungry.
--George Packer

Place At The Table

What gives a church in which celibacy is equated with holiness, in which males have almost all the power, the right to a place at the table where laws are made about women's bodies?
--Katha Pollitt

Evolve a System

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.
--George Orwell

Community

The reason most people do theater is because of the community. It is an art form where together you create something so much greater as an artist than you could do by yourself.
--Derek Cook

Patriotism

A modest proposal: no one displaying the Confederate flag gets to lecture any American about patriotism--ever.
--John Perr

It Happens

Progress is not an illusion. It happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing.
--George Orwell

Miracles

All baseball fans believe in miracles; the question is, how many do you believe in?
--John Updike

Ordinary Human

To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others.
--George Orwell

Go Broke

Many low-income debtors must save for months before they can afford to go broke.
--John Collins Rudolf

Senses

The goal is not to bring your adversaries to their knees but to their senses.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Western Time

Mid-century modernism helped confirm and create a new way of thinking about time. It is characteristic of First World, industrial cultures to think of time as something open-ended. This marks them as very different from traditional, face-to-face societies, who are inclined to think of time as something repetitive, redundant, in a word, circular. Western time is a bullet train. It hurtles away from the present, taking us with it as it goes.
--Grant McCracken