We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong.
-Karl Popper, philosopher and professor (28 Jul 1902-1994)
The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race, or his holy cause. A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.
-Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (25 Jul 1902-1983)
Only the stupid steal from the rich. The clever steal from the poor. The law usually protects the rich.
-Carsten Jensen, author (b. 24 Jul 1952)
Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
-Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia (23 Jul 1892-1975)
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
-Edmund Hillary, mountaineer and explorer (20 Jul 1919-2008)
The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.
-Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (21 Jul 1899-1961)
with Anu Garg
There are stars whose radiance is visible on Earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for humankind.
-Hannah Senesh, poet, playwright, and paratrooper (17 Jul 1921-1944)
We are healed of a suffering only by expressing it to the full.
-Marcel Proust, novelist (10 Jul 1871-1922)
I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy ... censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything -- you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.
-Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (7 Jul 1907-1988)
It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.
-Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1 Jul 1742-1799)
