Other
Assorted, Timely, Thoughtful Things to Say at Morning Meetings
hen
in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and
to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station
to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare
the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such
has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of
Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
--
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The
unanimous Declaration of
the thirteen united States
of America
To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
—Polonius (Hamlet, I, iii,
78-80)
I can be myself, follow my
dreams, and always do my best.
I can reach for the stars, lend a hand to others, and be a good friend.
I can make a difference! I promise to try.
Never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful, committed people
can change the world. Indeed, it's
the only thing that ever has.
--Margaret Mead
This we know: earth
does not belong to man,
man belongs to the earth. All things are connected
like the blood that unites us all.
Man did not weave the web of life, he
is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
—Chief Seattle
You
must be
the change you wish to see in the world.
—Mahatma Gandhi
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing
for others?
—Martin Luther King, Jr.