"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."
Albert Einstein
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives.
It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."
Charles Darwin
"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope."
Helen Keller
"Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results."
Rita Mae Brown
"The 20th century has been characterised by three developments of great political importance. The growth of democracy; the growth of corporate power; and the growth of corporate propaganda against democracy."
Alex Carey
"If you quietly accept and go along no matter what your feelings are, ultimately you internalize what you're saying, because it's too hard to believe one thing and say another."
Noam Chomksy
"Simply having rules does not change the things that people want to do. You have to change incentives."
Jimmy Wales
"Truth comes as conqueror only to those who have lost the art of receiving it as friend."
Rabindranath Tagore
"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."
Edward R. Murrow
"I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."
Stephen Jay Gould
"The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few to ride them."
Thomas Jefferson
"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform."
Susan B. Anthony
"Fear is not the natural state of civilized people."
Aung San Suu Kyi
"Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person, is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian."
Dennis Wholey
"New opinions often appear first as jokes and fancies, then as blasphemies and treason, then as questions open to discussion, and finally as established truths."
George Bernard Shaw
"You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it."
Malcolm X
"The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love."
William Sloane Coffin
"'Ello, I wish to register a complaint."
John Cleese
And living in a Brave New World,
marching towards our barren desires,
we descend to our deepest despair.
We are nature's creatures, the stuff of miracles,
hosts to ancient feelings of love;
squandered in dreams of utopia.
Lest we forget the smile of a child,
or the touch of a lover, content and delirious.
Forget not the tenderness of mother nature;
endless in love, relentless in grace.
Let us recall, such moments of truth,
defining our lives in whispers of passion.
And let us return to the parlour of love,
to greet our contentment.
For sometimes... you have to fight.
Images courtesy of the 11th Hour
News Update: 12th April 2008
I've just been to the local 20/20 summit. I had the opportunity to voice our concerns to a packed house, and it was received rather well.
We're certainly not alone in our fight for a better life.
There were some interesting people and great thinkers present, and it was a pleasure to be able to meet with them - I will be speaking with them again shortly and organising a meeting.
News Update: 20th March 2008
A draft of our party constitution has been written, and we are now in the process of ratifying it. When this is accomplished, we will construct and ratify our charter.
