There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, nαked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect you to save the world, I do think it’s not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary, and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair, and disrespect.
-Nikki Giovanni, poet and professor (7 Jun 1943-2024)
It is the people who scream the loudest about America and Freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for a differing point of view.
-Rosanne Cash, singer-songwriter and author (b. 24 May 1955)
I should dearly love that the world should be ever so little better for my presence. Even on this small stage we have our two sides, and something might be done by throwing all one's weight on the scale of breadth, tolerance, charity, temperance, peace, and kindliness to man and beast. We can't all strike very big blows, and even the little ones count for something.
-Arthur Conan Doyle, physician and writer (22 May 1859-1930)
The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other.
-Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (18 May 1872-1970)
How simple life becomes when things like mirrors are forgotten.
-Daphne du Maurier, novelist (13 May 1907-1989)
Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that.
-Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, preacher, journalist, and activist (12 May 1802-1861)
The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it’s considered to be your style.
-Fred Astaire, dancer, actor, singer, musician, and choreographer (10 May 1899-1987)
If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.
-Thomas Pynchon, novelist (b. 8 May 1937)
The butterfly flitting from flower to flower ever remains mine, I lose the one that is netted by me.
-Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (7 May 1861-1941)
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
-Annie Dillard, author (b. 30 Apr 1945)
The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.
-Joseph Heller, novelist (1 May 1923-1999)
We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love.
-Madame De Stael, writer (22 Apr 1766-1817)
There is a beauty in discovery. There is mathematics in music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and exquisite form in a molecule. Attempts to place different disciplines in different camps are revealed as artificial in the face of the unity of knowledge. All literate men are sustained by the philosopher, the historian, the political analyst, the economist, the scientist, the poet, the artisan, and the musician.
-Glenn T. Seaborg, scientist, Nobel laureate (19 Apr 1912-1999)
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.
-Robert Lynd, writer (20 Apr 1879-1949)
The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.
-Arnold J. Toynbee, historian (14 Apr 1889-1975)
Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.
-Verna Myers, author and speaker (b. 5 Apr 1960)
But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
-Andrew Marvell, poet (31 Mar 1621-1678)
