#gh

Nothing is more imminent than the impossible . . . what we must always foresee is the unforeseen. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#impossible #plan #vision #vision

[Lighting a cigarette] Well, I'm not here to impinge on anybody else's lifestyle. If I'm in a place where I know I'm going to harm somebody's health or somebody asks me to please not smoke, I just go outside and smoke. But I do resent the way the nonsmoking mentality has been imposed on the smoking minority. Because, first of all, in a democracy, minorities do have rights. And, second, the whole pitch about smoking has gone from being a health issue to a moral issue, and when they reduce something to a moral issue, it has no place in any kind of legislation, as far as I'm concerned. ↗

— Frank Zappa

#morality #rights #smoking #democracy

People use democracy as a free-floating abstraction disconnected from reality. Democracy in and of itself is not necessarily good. Gang rape, after all, is democracy in action. All men have the right to live their own life. Democracy must be rooted in a rational philosophy that first and foremost recognizes the right of an individual. A few million Imperial Order men screaming for the lives of a much smaller number of people in the New World may win a democratic vote, but it does not give them the right to those lives, or make their calls for such killing right. Democracy is not a synonym for justice or for freedom. Democracy is not a sacred right sanctifying mob rule. Democracy is a principle that is subordinate to the inalienable rights of the individual. ↗

— Terry Goodkind

#human-rights #freedom

Between death and hell a bridge shining silver wings offers his soul hope. ↗

— Aberjhani

#angels-and-demons #bridges #death #depression #desperation

Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. ↗

— Albert Einstein

#independent-thought #reading #independence

It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority. ↗

— Benjamin Franklin

#duty #independent-thought #independence

I feel a sense of responsibility," said Jordan. "And where is this feeling located? In your pants, perhaps? ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#isabelle-lightwood #jordan-kyle #responsibility

You see, but you do not observe. ↗

— Arthur Conan Doyle

#observation

Light is important to us humans. It influences our moods, our perceptions, our energy levels. A face glimpsed among trees, dappled by the shadows and the green-tinged light reflected from the forest, will seem quite different to the same face seen on a beach in hard, dry, sunlight, or in a darkening room at twilight, with the shadows of a venetian blind striped across it like a convict’s uniform. ↗

— John Marsden

#perception

Money is the great tool through whose means labor and skill become universally co-operative. ↗

— Leland Stanford

#co-operative #great #labor #means #money