#nation

It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one. ↗

— Voltaire

#guilt #innocence #judgment #justice #mercy

We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything. ↗

— William Golding

#nationalism #poignant #pride #english

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. ↗

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

#fate #universe

...the big things - how we think, what we value - those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone - or any society - determine those for you. ↗

— Mitch Albom

#self-determination #values

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. ↗

— John F. Kennedy

#alien #american #american people #competitive #entrust

Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness. ↗

— Anne Frank

#darkness #illumination #dark

Our dreams prove that to imagine - to dream about things that have not happened - is among mankind's deepest needs. ↗

— Milan Kundera

#imagination #dreams

Love taught me to die with dignity that I might come forth anew in splendor. Born once of flesh, then again of fire, I was reborn a third time to the sound of my name humming haikus in heaven’s mouth. ↗

— Aberjhani

#dignity #faith #haiku #heaven #human-mortality

The seed of an urban legend find fertile soil at the corner of tragedy and imagination. ↗

— Thomm Quackenbush

#tragedy #urban-legend #urban-legends #dreams

Miles had sworn his officer's oath to the Emperor less than two weeks ago, puffed with pride at his achievement. In his secret mind he had imagined himself keeping that oath through blazing battle, enemy torture, what-have-you, even while sharing cynical cracks afterwards with Ivan about archaic dress swords and the sort of people who insisted on wearing them. But in the dark of subtler temptations, those that hurt without heroism for consolation, he foresaw, the Emperor would no longer be the symbol of Barrayar in his heart. Peace to you, small lady, he thought to Raina. You've won a twisted poor modern knight, to wear your favor on his sleeve. But it's a twisted poor world we were both born into, that rejects us without mercy and ejects us without consultation. At least I won't just tilt at windmills for you. I'll send in sappers to mine the twirling suckers, and blast them into the sky.... He knew who he served now. And why he could not quit. And why he must not fail. ↗

— Lois McMaster Bujold

#mourning #imagination