Metaphors and traditions

"Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies."

~ Joseph Campbell

If you enslave me, you'll never rescue yourself

"The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it is to usurp the prerogative of Jehovah. Every man has a right to his own body - the products of his own labor - to the protection of law - and to the common advantages of society."

~ William Lloyd Garrison



"As long as I am an American citizen I shall hold myself free to speak, to write and publish whatever I please on any subject, holding myself amenable to the laws of my country for the same."

~ Elijah Lovejoy



"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

~ Winston Churchill

We're only in it for the money

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."

~ Frank Zappa

Time for outrage

If you want to be a real human being — a real woman, a real man — you cannot tolerate things which put you to indignation, to outrage. You must stand up. I always say to people, "Look around; look at what makes you unhappy, what makes you furious, and then engage yourself in some action."

The worst possible outlook is indifference that says, "I can’t do anything about it; I’ll just get by." Behaving like that deprives you of one of the essentials of being human: the capacity and the freedom to feel outraged.

~ Stéphane Hessel

Avoiding cosmic bankruptcy

Scheme

We need economic growth.
Oceans need more trash.

Poison the aquifers,
Devastate the soil,
People need jobs!

clean air 
safe and sufficient water 
safe and adequate food 
safe and peaceful settlements 
stable global environment 

Economic growth is all we need. 

Perfection

"You know you have reached perfection of design not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away."

~ Antoine de Saint Exupéry