#side

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. ↗

— Barack Obama

#president

Based on what you know about him in history books, what do you think Abraham Lincoln would be doing if he were alive today? 1) Writing his memoirs of the Civil War. 2) Advising the President. 3) Desperately clawing at the inside of his coffin. ↗

— David Letterman

#president

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. ↗

— H.L. Mencken

#elite #elitism #elitist #meritocracy #politics

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. ↗

— Paulo Freire

#conflict #hands #means #neutral #powerful

I am often described to my irritation as a 'contrarian' and even had the title inflicted on me by the publisher of one of my early books. (At least on that occasion I lived up to the title by ridiculing the word in my introduction to the book's first chapter.) It is actually a pity that our culture doesn't have a good vernacular word for an oppositionist or even for someone who tries to do his own thinking: the word 'dissident' can't be self-conferred because it is really a title of honor that has to be won or earned, while terms like 'gadfly' or 'maverick' are somehow trivial and condescending as well as over-full of self-regard. And I've lost count of the number of memoirs by old comrades or ex-comrades that have titles like 'Against the Stream,' 'Against the Current,' 'Minority of One,' 'Breaking Ranks' and so forth—all of them lending point to Harold Rosenberg's withering remark about 'the herd of independent minds.' Even when I was quite young I disliked being called a 'rebel': it seemed to make the patronizing suggestion that 'questioning authority' was part of a 'phase' through which I would naturally go. On the contrary, I was a relatively well-behaved and well-mannered boy, and chose my battles with some deliberation rather than just thinking with my hormones. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#contrarianism #dissent #dissidents #free-thought #harold-rosenberg

Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it. ↗

— Eudora Welty

#became #becoming #first #found #i

I love you crookedly because my heart's been unhinged from birth. The doctors gave me strict instructions not to fall in love: my fragile clockwork heart would never survive. But when you gave me a dose of love so powerful - far beyond my wildest dreams - that I felt able to confront anything for you, I decided to put my life in your hands. ↗

— Mathias Malzieu

#broken-hearted-quotes #one-sidedness #risking-it-all #dreams

With heightened senses it remained motionless and looked through bulbous eyes. It could taste fear in the air. Pheromones. Sweat. Food was near, but more importantly, so was its new home. ↗

— Stephen Craig

#creature #horror #inside #food

I found Caeden lying on my bed with both the dogs. He was talking to them and petting Archie behind his ears. It was like our own little family. ↗

— Micalea Smeltzer

#family

What I was chasing in circles must have been the tail of the darkness inside me. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#life-lesson #psychology #life