Lost America

In prison, I fell in love with my country. I had loved her before then, but like most young people, my affection was little more than a simple appreciation for the comforts and privileges most Americans enjoyed and took for granted. It wasn't until I had lost America for a time that I realized how much I loved her.
--John McCain

Forward

If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, then Fascism and Communism, aided, unconsciously perhaps, by old-line Tory Republicanism, will grow in strength in our land.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (November 4, 1938)

Patriotism

What greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?
--Barack Obama

Temporary

We are in this together, this accumulation of scars, this world of objects, this physical and temporary heaven that so often takes on the countenance of hell.
--Olivia Laing

Obsessive

Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.
--Robert O. Paxton (The Anatomy of Fascism; 2004)

Meaning

This world is infinitely layered and mysterious. Every day of our lives, we see far more than we can comprehend, and because the failure to comprehend disquiets us, we lie to ourselves about what we see. We want a simple world, but we live in one that is magnificently complex. Rather than acknowledge the exquisite roundness of creation, we take it in thin slices, and we view each slice through tinted, distorting lenses that further diminish its beauty and obscure truths that await recognition. Complexity implies meaning, and we are afraid of meaning.
--Dean Koontz

Betray

For not only do we reveal ourselves with our words, we also betray ourselves.
--Pascal Mercier

Humanity

Imagining the humanity of people other than myself is my responsibility. And yet the root cause of so much grief is our failure to do just that.
--Jennifer Finney Boylan

Crime

Organized religion was the world's first organized crime syndicate. Other benefits besides money and power were keeping women as slaves and breeders; controlling the masses of society with fear and lies; and creating the ultimate boys club.
--JoAnn Black

Experiment

Of all scientific experiments, the experiment of inhabiting consciousness--that is, a singular consciousness--must be the most extraordinary. Yet we take it for granted, we simply drift with "consciousness" as if it were a river with no banks, bed, source, or destination.
--Joyce Carol Oates

Fuck

If you take away the right to say fuck, you take away the right to say fuck the government.
--Lenny Bruce

Good-Faith

The important distinction is not between theists and naturalists; it's between people who care enough about the universe to make a good-faith effort to understand it, and those who fit it into a predetermined box or simply take it for granted.
--Sean Carroll

Wallet

How far down the current presidential line of succession would you have to go before you found someone who'd return your wallet with the cash still inside?
--Jason Roeder

Noted

People overestimate the extent to which their actions and appearance are noted by others.
--Thomas D. Gilovich

Sane

The kind of madness I had was different. It was quiet, and very, very dangerous. It was a madness designed to keep me sane.
--Helen Macdonald

August 6

Here's a basic question we as a species should pose to the 21st century every August 6 (the anniversary of Hiroshima) through 9 (Nagasaki): What if fewer children were killed?
--Sarah Vowell

Obsessive

Fascism is a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.
--Robert O. Paxton (2004)

The Press

The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent ANY part of the government from deceiving the people.
--Justice Hugo L. Black

Bible

It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.
--Mark Twain

Feature

This whole decoupling of words from truth is set forth as a feature, not a bug.
--Dahlia Lithwick

Literature

Was it only a dream that Literature was once dangerous, that it had the power to awaken and change us?
--Joy Williams

A.I.

That we assume if artificial intelligence gets too smart it will destroy humanity says a lot more about humans than it does machines.
--Corey Mohler

Dumps

Facebook is the equivalent of a massively profitable factory that just dumps all of its waste into the river and never has to pay for the cost to clean it up.
--Chris Hayes

Humanity

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.
--Herman Melville

Fear

Systematic fear is the condition that makes freedom impossible, and it is aroused by the expectation of institutionalized cruelty as by nothing else.
--Judith Shklar

Vast

The universe is vast, humans are tiny, confused, and terrified, and anything that gets you through your day is fine by me.
--David Roberts

Abandoned

For those who have abandoned hope, we'll restore hope and we'll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again!
--Ronald Reagan (nomination acceptance speech, July 17 1980)

His Dog

A man's soul can be judged by the way he treats his dog.
--Charles Doran

More

History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as more tragedy.
--Paul Krugman

No Wavering

I want to move with some intensity, even if slowly, but no wavering or hesitation, toward things that matter to me.
--Grant Petersen

Even I

I was hopeful that I wouldn't see the worst of my fears come true. But it has been worse. I have to tell you, even I did not believe this would happen.
--Hillary Rodham Clinton (June 2018)

Counts

You always think you have more time. Love is the only thing that counts.
--Chris Behner

Mental

Mental illness, whether depression or psychosis, just disinhibits men. They follow patterns that are built into the culture.
--Rebecca Solnit

Free Pass

Religion always gets a free pass. No other superstition gets the kind of exceptions made for it that religion does. Wrap up any nutty belief in religious garb, and suddenly even those who don't believe in it are supposed to "respect" it.
--Daniel Thompson

No Cure

If many remedies are prescribed for an illness, you may be certain that the illness has no cure.
--Anton Chekhov

Command

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
--George Orwell (1984)

I Am

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
--Langston Hughes (1938)

Blowing

America! For the love of God, you are blowing the biggest lead human civilization has granted a people in history.
--Sean Astin

Health

If we can accept that our physical health can be shaped by society--by secondhand smoke or a bad diet--then we must accept that our mental health can be too.
--Matt Haig

Refuse

Refuse to be an accomplice. Don't lie--don't keep your eyes shut.
--Simone Weil

Agenda

The crisis is not one of democracy, it is far deeper than that. There are few conservatives any more. A conservative opposes change--any change--as likely to make things worse. "MAGA" is not a conservative rallying cry. It is the slogan of reactionaries--who, as history has shown, can be very dangerous folks when they are not opposed and very dangerous to oppose.

When the reactionary agenda cannot be achieved democratically, the reactionaries don't give up the agenda, they give up democracy. We've seen that already with the gerrymandering in place.

When the reactionary agenda cannot be achieved legally, the reactionaries don't give up the agenda, they subvert the law and the legal system. We've seen that through the attacks on law enforcement, the DOJ, and the attempts both to stack the courts and to pardon those (Arpaio) who ignore them and are convicted of criminal contempt.

When reactionaries cannot achieve their agenda constitutionally, they don't give up the agenda, they give up the constitution. We've seen just about every amendment except the Second being attacked. The latest is the Fourth.

When reactionaries can't achieve their agenda humanely, they don't give up the agenda, they surrender their humanity. That's played out on the border.

What remains is what happens when they can't achieve the agenda peacefully--it is then that they give up on peace. We aren't there. Yet. But do you really think there are any limits they won't go to in pursuit of MAGA?
--Nick Grande Prairie

Nice

Nice people made the best Nazis. Or so I have been told. My mother was born in Munich in 1934, and spent her childhood in Nazi Germany surrounded by nice people who refused to make waves. When things got ugly, the people my mother lived alongside chose not to focus on "politics," instead busying themselves with happier things. They were lovely, kind people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away.
--Naomi Shulman

Woe

Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed.
--The Bible, Isaiah 10:1-3

Monster

When faced with human monsters, we want to believe that they think like we do. We tell ourselves: "Surely they wouldn't...surely they won't..."

But they would. And they will.

What defines a "monster"? The absence of the capacity for empathy.
--Leah McElrath

Believe

If you believe in God, how can you believe in religion?
--Claudia Cohl

Moral

Hitting kids as a disciplinary tool probably seems normal to most Americans. It's part of American culture. But lots of forms of violence and discrimination have been part of our culture. Familiarity is not a moral argument.
--David Roberts

Exploit

Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen....By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects.
--Lynn White Jr. (historian, Science magazine; 1967)

Truth

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally.
--Flannery O'Connor

Don't Hesitate

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don't hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that's often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don't be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb. (Don't Hesitate)
--Mary Oliver

Imitation

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
--Eric Hoffer

Demand

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
--Frederick Douglass

Kill Him

Master Lincoln, he's a great man, and I am a poor negro; but the negro can tell master Lincoln how to save the money and the young men. He can do it by setting the negro free. Suppose that was an awful big snake down there, on the floor. He bite you. Folks all scared, because you die. You send for a doctor to cut the bite; but the snake, he rolled up there, and while the doctor doing it, he bite you again. The doctor dug out that bite; but while the doctor doing it, the snake, he spring up and bite you again; so he keep doing it, till you kill him. That's what master Lincoln ought to know.
--Harriet Tubman (1862)

Quest

You should always be willing to join with those who say they are on a quest for the truth. And you should always run from those who claim to have found it.
--Vaclav Havel

True

For years, the far Christian Right has been warning us about Godless hordes coming to destroy America and it turns out this was true--it's just that the words were autobiographical.
--John Pavlovitz

Progress

For the sake of human progress, the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish, to the point of eliminating, religious faiths.
--E. O. Wilson

Wouldn't Want

Doesn't it strike you as mildly ironic that most of the people who are against abortion are people you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place?
--George Carlin

Mundane

Happiness is every mundane task completed--leaves raked, a report completed at work, the dishwasher loaded, a phone call or email from a child or a friend. Happiness is all around, I do not need to seek it. I just have to open my heart and mind to it.
--Jana New York

Triage

In this new era of triage, as democratic institutions and social safety nets are increasingly considered dispensable luxuries, the task of governance will be to lower the political and economic expectations of the masses without inciting full-fledged revolt.
--Ando Arick (March 2010)

Bring

The world is just the world, unfolding according to the patterns of nature, free of any judgmental attributes. The world exists; beauty and goodness are things that we bring to it.
--Sean Carroll

Our Leader

You think it doesn't matter who our leader is?
--Oleg Burov character (December 1987, in TV show "The Americans")

Ironic

What's wrong with our country right now: people in high places are trying to divide us, divide loyalties, make this about the flag as if the flag is something other than what it really is--which is a representation of what we're about, which is diversity, peaceful protests, right to free speech. It's ironic actually.
--Steve Kerr

Discuss

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
--Eleanor Roosevelt

Human Problem

There is always a video of people doing evil. You can find Christians doing evil, Muslims doing evil, atheists doing evil. Evil is a human problem. To think it is the problem of only one group is another human problem.
--Matt Haig

Patriotism

To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous, instead of a compulsory routine, is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.
--Justice Robert Jackson

Start

Stop learning.
Start knowing.
The rose opens 
and opens.
And when it falls, 
falls outward.
--Jalal ad-Din Rumi

Not Entirely

Perhaps the only consolation for life's inevitable losses is the rediscovery of camaraderie, with its reminder that, even at our most desolate, we are not entirely alone.
--Brandon French

Tension

Time is nothing other than tension, and I would be very surprised if it is not tension of consciousness itself.
--St. Augustine (Confessions)

Killers

Two or three centuries from now it will be recognized that all the competent killers are Christians; then the pagan world will go to school to the Christian--not to acquire his religion, but his guns.
--Mark Twain

Real

Financial meltdown leads to a social meltdown, which leads to a political meltdown. That's the real fear.
--Kenneth Rogoff

Twice

When you are a pessimist and the bad thing happens, you live it twice. Once when you worry about it, and the second time when it happens.
--Amos Tversky

Evidence

We have to be willing to accept uncertainty and incomplete knowledge, and always be ready to update our beliefs as new evidence comes in.
--Sean Carroll

An Axe

Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency....To hope is to give yourself to the future--and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.
--Rebecca Solnit

An Idea

Religion is an idea about how the world works--and it's just as valid to criticize it in public forums as it is to criticize any other idea.
--Greta Christina

Egalitarian

An honest man is not "feminist," he is egalitarian. He quietly supports the legal rights and equality of all people, and doesn't put on a pretense of "feminism."
--Jose Puentes

Patience

Have patience! In time, even grass becomes milk.
--Charan Singh

Trust

You wouldn't want to live in a world where you couldn't be conned. Because it would mean you're living in a world where you never trusted anyone or anything. The element of the con is trust. That's what you provide. To live without it is to be suspicious of every single thing that goes on.
--Ricky Jay

Cycles

How solemn and huge and deeply pathetic our life does loom in its once-and doneness, how inexorably linear, even though our rotating, revolving planet offers us the cycles of the day and of the year to suggest that existence is intrinsically cyclical, a playful spin, and that there will always be, tomorrow morning or the next, another chance.
--John Updike

What tools...

We might ask ourselves, what tools do we have? What can we count on? You can count on yourself. Believe me, your self is your best ally. You know who you are, even when sometimes it becomes a little blurry and you make mistakes or seem to be veering off, just go deeper. You know who you are. You know the right thing to do. And when you make a mistake, it's alright--just as the song goes, pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and start all over again.
--Patti Smith (commencement speech Pratt Institute May 2010)

Control

You are the only one who is responsible for your own state of consciousness. Therefore, right now, you can take charge of moving your consciousness in a new direction...but "responsibility" and "control" are two different things!
--Greg Barrette

Government

The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion--it is an evil government.
--Eric Hoffer

Culture

The Dutch and the Danish are said to be among the happiest people on earth, which I can't help but imagine must have something to do with their bike culture.
--Michael Kimmelman

Motion

I hope I never get tired of how it feels to just be in motion, on a bike.
--Mike Ferrentino

Mourn

After a death we mourn not only the deceased but also the version of ourselves we got to be with that person.
--Meghan O'Rourke

Sanity

Developing an adequate response to rejection, neither defensive nor sentimental, lies at the heart of any serious attempt at sanity.
--Alain de Botton

Refinement

I have focused on several qualities in need of refinement in my soul: patience, tenderness, and warmth.
--Curiouser California

Moving

I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

Everything Except

Obey your head. Obey your heart. Obey your gut. In fact, obey everything except commands.
--Matt Haig

The Soul

The Soul selects her own Society--
Then--shuts the Door--
--Emily Dickinson

You think...?

A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. You think when Jesus comes back he ever wants to see a fucking cross? It's like going up to Jackie Onassis wearing a rifle pendant.
--Bill Hicks

Spanking as a means of discipline is premised on the idea that violence can communicate or "teach lessons." That is a fairy tale we tell ourselves to justify our baser instincts. It's false in parenting, in adult relationships, in geopolitics, everywhere.
--David Roberts

Funny

You cannot be memorably funny without at some point raising topics which the rich, the powerful and the complacent would prefer to see left alone.
--George Orwell

Republic

When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.
--Thomas Jefferson

Kill

How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal?
--Harold Pinter

Knowledge

The essence of Christianity is told to us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge. The subtext is: All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your fucking mouth shut and hadn't asked any questions.
--Frank Zappa

Action

Prayer is meaningless if not married to moral action.
--Danielle Berrin

I See

I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.
--James Baldwin

Compounding

Confidence is a compounding commodity. It builds on itself.
--Charles M. Blow

Fail

Words fail us like the fabrications they are.
--Diane Ackerman

Concealed

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
--Patrick Henry

Enough

Agnostics are often assumed to be wishy-washy--that they dither and um when asked about greater things. But actually, agnostics have a firm belief: they do not have enough information to conclusively be either a believer or an unbeliever.
--Gautam Raja