Independence Day

The flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776,
have spread over too much of the globe
to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism;
on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.

Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams, 1821

The American Dream

There are those, I know, who will reply that the liberation of humanity,
        the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream.
                They are right. It is. It is the American Dream.

                                 Archibald MacLeish, Life magazine 1960 

 

 

 

Three wishes

Have a heart that never hardens,
    and a temper that never tires,
        and a touch that never hurts.

                Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big mistake

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery,
a metaphor for a proof,
a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths,
and oneself for an oracle,
is inborn in us.

        Paul Valery, The Method of Leonardo da Vinci 

Rhyme and reason

It has been said that history repeats itself. T
his is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes.

    Theodor Reik, The Unreachables

 

 

 

 

 

Measuring wonder

I was barked at by numerous dogs who are earning their food guarding ignorance and superstition for the benefit of those who profit from it. Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics and comes from the same source. They are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who—in their grudge against the traditional "opium for the people"—cannot bear the music of the spheres. The Wonder of nature does not become smaller because one cannot measure it by the standards of human moral and human aims.

Albert Einstein, Letter discussing responses to his essay "Science and Religion" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Parting words

Remember, I’ll never leave you,
she said, as she got in the car to go to the airport.
And however ridiculous it sounded,
you knew it was true --
as true as anything is in this life.
She wasn’t going anywhere.
A truth-teller in a world of illusion
steady in her course.