Art is the most effective mode of communication that exists.
—John Dewey, Art as Experience (in
The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett)
All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable,
which makes you see something you weren't noticing,
which makes you see something that isn't even visible.
—Norman Maclean, A River Runs
through it, (in The Wright 3
by Blue Balliett)
The world lives as you live,
Speaks as you speak, a creature that
Repeats its vital words, yet balances
The syllable of a
syllable.
Wallace Stevens
"Poetry is ultimately mythology, the telling of stories of the soul,"
he wrote. "The old myths, the old gods, the old heroes have never died.
They are only sleeping at the bottom of our minds, waiting for our
call. We have need of them, for in their sum they epitomize the wisdom
and experience of the race."
—Stanley Kunitz
Unless the gentle inherit the earth
There will be no earth.
May Sarton
Only by the form, the pattern,
Can words or music reach
The stillness, as a Chinese jar still
Moves perpetually in its stillness.
T.S.Eliot, Burnt Norton
stay together
learn the flowers
go light
'For the Children' by Gary Snyder
...Be patient. Such pleasure as there is, is here, now.
Take pleasure as it comes. Take work as it comes.
The end may never come,
or when it does it may be the wrong end.
Wendell Berry
Just as my fingers on these keys
Make music, so the selfsame sounds
On my spirit make a music, too.
Wallace
Stevens
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
Maya Angelou
Grasp the tools and move in rhythm side by side
flash gleams of wit and silent knowledge
eye to eye
Gary Syder,
‘Tomorrow’s Song’
Any night you can awake and line up with the north star.
Any night disguised as a person walking
you can disappear.
William Stafford
The tone of your voice comes back
from the world enriched by all that it passes over.
And this language of ours holds it all.
William Stafford
The beautiful changes as a forest is changed
By a chameleon’s tuning his skin to it;
Richard Wilbur
"Wit ought to be a glorious treat, like caviar; never spread it about
like
marmalade."
--Sir Noel Coward
... How much we are the woods we wander in.
‘Ceremony’ , Richard Wilbur
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
A Native American grandfather talking to his young grandson tells the
boy he has two wolves inside of him struggling with each other. The
first is the wolf of peace, love and kindness. The other wolf is
fear,
greed and hatred. "Which wolf will win, grandfather?" asks the young
boy. "Whichever one I feed," is the reply.
If only for half an hour a day, a child should do something serviceable
to the community.
—George Bernard Shaw
Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a
striving good enough to be called a failure.
—George Eliot
Children have more need of models than critics.
—Joseph Joubert
If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had forty people in his office at one
time, all of who had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to
be
there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist,
without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence
for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom
teacher's job.
—Donald D. Quinn
Modern cynics and skeptics...see no harm in paying those to whom they
entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than they entrust
the
care of their plumbing.
—John F. Kennedy
"A church which cannot take a firm stand against war
is a church which does not deserve to be believed."
—Harvey Cox, American Baptist theologian at Harvard
Divinity School
A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in
their mission can alter the course of history.
—MK Gandhi
A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe,’ a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and
feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical
delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for
us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few
persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison
by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures
and the whole of nature in its beauty.
—Albert Einstein, 1930
"Our schoolbooks glorify war & conceal its horrors. They
indoctrinate
children with hatred. I would rather teach peace rather than war, love
rather than hate . . . . People should continue to fight but they
should fight for things worthwhile, not imaginary geographical lines,
racial prejudices and private greed draped in the colors of
patriotism. Their arms should be weapons of the spirit, not
shrapnel
and tanks."
—Albert Einstein
I spent 33 years in the Marines ...most of my time being a high class
muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street & the bankers. In
short, I was a racketeer for capitalism...I helped purify Nicaragua for
the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I
helped make Mexico & especially Tampico safe for American oil
interests in 1914. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for
American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti & Cuba a
decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue. I
helped in the rape of half dozen Central American republics for the
benefit of Wall Street... In China, in 1927, I helped see to it that
Standard Oil went its way unmolested. I had a swell racket. I was
rewarded with honors, medals, promotions... I might have given Al
Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in
three city districts. The Marines operated on three continents.
—Marine Commander General Smedley D.Butler (Congressional Medal of
Honor recipient)
Why is killing one person murder, but killing thousands is foreign
policy?
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human
history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against
injustice,[s]he sends forth a tiny ripple ofhope, and crossing each
other
from a million different centers of energy and daring,those ripples
build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of
oppression and resistance.
— Robert F. Kennedy, University of Capetown, South Africa, 1966
Any man who has the brains to think and the nerve to act
for the benefit of the people of the country is considered
a radical by those who are content with stagnation and
willing to endure disaster.
—William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (1863-1951).
When a stupid man does something he's ashamed of, he claims it as his
duty.
—George Bernard Shaw
The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest.
—William Sloan Coffin
We tend to hold certainty dearer than truth.
—William Sloan Coffin
Only reverance can restrain violence - reverance for human
life and the environment.
—William Sloan Coffin
God has the authority to end life; humans have the power to
do it.
—William Sloan Coffin
Self-righteousness is the bane of human existence.
—William Sloan Coffin
Self-righteousness is the greatest sin of the United States.
—William Sloan Coffin
Power blinds before it corrupts.
—William Sloan Coffin
Technology has outstripped moral authority. We’re beginning to
live beyond our technological means.
—William Sloan Coffin
You don’t do something because it works; you do it because
it is the right thing to do. The results of your efforts may
not be achieved in your lifetime. Such subtle covenants shall be
made Till peace itself is war in masquerade.
— John Dryden
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have
guided missiles and misguided men.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
Every gun that is made, every warship
launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft
from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not
clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone; it is spending
the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists and the hopes
of its children.
—Dwight David Eisenhower, 6-17-61
There is something
better than victory, and that is the avoidance of war.
—Bertrand Russell
Today we are faced
with the pre-eminent fact that,
if civilization is to
survive, we must cultivate the
science of human
relationships - the ability of all
peoples, of all kinds,
to live together and to work
together in the same
world, at peace.... /
— Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth
lie....
But rather mourn the
apathetic throng--
The cowed and meek--
Who see the world's
great anguish and its wrong,
And dare not speak!
—Ralph Chaplin, 1922
Peace comes within the
souls of men when they realize their oneness with the universe.
—Black Elk
World Pledge
I pledge allegiance to
the world
To cherish every
living thing
To care for earth and
sea and air
With peace and freedom
everywhere/ Lillian Gesner
During our stay on this planet, for ninety or a hundred
years at most, we must try to do something good, something
useful with our lives. By trying to be at peace with
ourselves we can help others to share that peace. If we can
contribute to other people’s happiness, we will find the
true goal, the true meaning of life.
—H.H. Dalai Lama
A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to
him, that of plants and animals, as that of his fellow men,
and when he devotes himself to all life that is in need of
help.
—Albert Schweitzer
..rather than punishing individuals for their crimes we should
destroy the social conditions which engender crime, and
give to each individual the scope he needs in society in
order to develop his life.
—I. Harris
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing
for others?
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the
oppressed.
—Steven Biko
You must be the change you want to see in the world.
—Mahatma Gandhi
Cynicism is not the weapon that will rebuild the world.
—Paulo Freire
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever
has."/
—Margaret Meade
This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of the herd nature,
the military system, which I abhor. That a man can take
pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band
is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain
by mistake; a backbone was all he needed. This plague-spot of
civilzation ought to be abolished with all possible speed."
—(Albert Einstein,The World As I See It_ , 1949, p. 4)
THE PARADOX :
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller
buildings, but shorter tempers; Wider freeways, but narrower
viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it
less.We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but
less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but
less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less
wellness. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too often. We've learned how
to make a living, but not a life; We've added years to life, not life
to years.We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have
trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered
outer space, but not inner space; We've cleaned up the air but polluted
the soul: We've split the atom, but not our prejudice; We have higher
incomes, but lower morals; We've become long on quantity, but short on
quality.These are the times of tall men, and short character; steep
profits, and shallow relationships.These are the times of world peace,
but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of
food, but less nutrition.These are days of two incomes, but more
divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. It is a time when there
is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time
when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can
choose either to make a difference, or to just hit delete/
—Bob Moorhead, Seattle pastor.
Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we
who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead.
— General Omar Bradley
"When words become unclear,
I shall focus on photographs.
When images become inadequate,
I shall be content with silence."
-- Ansel Adams, Photographer
_ _ _
"I should like to love my country and still love justice."
-- Albert Camus
_ _ _
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
"Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer, and anything that
does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of truth,
reject it."
"Recall the face of the poorest and most helpless person you have
ever seen, and ask yourself if the next worldly action that you
contemplate is going to be of any use to that person."
-- Mohandas Karamchand 'Mahatma' Gandhi (3 quotes)
Intentional Shalom
by John Wilmerding
October 25, 2003
We are simple people;
people of loving peace,
singing one another
an entirely new song.
Living in a new way,
we transform our own lives
into love, into grace
into deep compassion.
Going out in the world,
touching other people,
we resonate and pray;
we energize with love.
Seeing absence of love,
we reflect in silence.
Struggling within ourselves;
we can comprehend it.
Then we engage ourselves
we know we can change it
Intentional Shalom
Transformative Power
Pulsating energy,
we thus transform ourselves
into agents of peace,
justice, change, and mercy.
When we become many,
we true agents of peace,
our very lives transformed,
then war will disappear.
[Paraphrased from the words of Osho
from volume II of his 'Zen: The Path of Paradox']
_ _ _
"Act as if the principle by which you act
were about to be turned into
a universal law of nature."
-- Immanuel Kant, Philosopher
"Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed people
can change the world. Indeed,
it's the only thing that ever has."
-- Anthropologist Margaret Mead
_ _ _
"The men that American people admire most extravagantly
are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently
are those who try to tell them the truth."
-- H. L. Mencken
_ _ _
"I knew that I could never again raise my voice against
the violence of the oppressed in the ghettoes without
having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of
violence in the world today -- my own government.
-- The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
_ _ _
Individuals have global moral obligations which
transcend national obligations of obedience; they
must sometimes violate domestic laws to prevent
crimes against peace, justice and all of humanity.
-- 1950's 'Nuremberg Precedent' in Global Law
_ _ _
"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can ...
Out on the edge, you can see all kinds of things
you can't see from the center."
-- Kurt Vonnegut, Author
“Nothing is plainer than that the sympathy with war is a juvenile and
temporary state.”
(from Emerson’s 1838 lecture called “War”)
Source: http://oz.plymouth.edu/~lsandy/quotables.html