#lit

Books may not change our suffering, books may not protect us from evil, books may not tell us what is good or what is beautiful, and they will certainly not shield us from the common fate of the grave. But books grant us myriad possibilities: the possibility of change, the possibility of illumination. ↗

— Alberto Manguel

#literature #reading #beauty

The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it's right. If it disturbs you it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed. ↗

— Robert M. Pirsig

#technology #usability #art

Sometimes carrying the burden of an upsetting truth, and hiding it, is actually a gift you give to someone else. You bear that burden, so they don’t have to, in a situation where telling them will change nothing. ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#care #honesty #love #moral #morality

Most people don’t know where money comes from. Even most of our elected officials don’t know. If you were to ask a politician where money comes from, s/he would probably reply, “I don’t know, from other people’s pockets?”
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#politics #change

For [Stephen] Harper, a national daycare plan bordered on being a socialist scheme, a phrase he had once used to describe the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. For [Paul] Martin, whose plan would have transferred to the provinces $5 billion over five years, the national program was what Canadianism was all about. "Think about it this way," [Martin] said. "What if, decades ago, Tommy Douglas and my father and Lester Pearson had considered the idea of medicare and then said, 'Forget it! Let's just give people twenty-five dollars a week.' You want a fundamental difference between Mr. Harper and myself? Well, this is it. ↗

— Lawrence Martin

#canadian #canadian-history #canadian-politics #health-care #healthcare

You suffer from the oldest delusion in politics. You think you can change the world by talking to a leader. Leaders are the effects, not the causes of changes. ↗

— Alasdair Gray

#change

It is a great danger for everyone when what is shocking changes. ↗

— Graham Greene

#change

The top 10 per cent of the US population appropriated 91 per cent of income growth between 1989 and 2006, while the top 1 per cent took 59 per cent. ↗

— Ha-Joon Chang

#inequality #change

The only thing set in stone are dumb quotes and names of dead people. Everything else is subject to change. ↗

— Kimberly Spencer

#humor #reality #wisdom #change

Never let me hear you say it's someone else's fault. It often is, but you must never shirk your own responsibility ... You can't change others, but you can do something about a fault in yourself. ↗

— Anne Holm

#responsibility #change