"The most dangerous worldview is the view of those who have never looked at the world." — Alexander von Humboldt
"Clearly, what gets declared a crisis is an expression of power and priorities as much as hard facts. But we need not be spectators in all this: politicians aren’t the only ones with the power to declare a crisis. Mass movements of regular people can declare one too." — Naomi Kline This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
"Evil doesn’t have to be an overt act; it can be merely the absence of good. If you have the ability, the resources, and the opportunity to do good and you do nothing, that can be evil." — Yvon Chouinard Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
"To do good, you actually have to do something." — Yvon Chouinard American Express commercial
"You’re not gonna be able to reverse history—but you can change what the future looks like for sure." — Brandon Belcher For the Love of Climbing, Episode 17, "What We Know"
"I think a lot of people really hate to admit it, but they start to think about how their past actions have contributed to this cycle of privilege or have possibly hurt people in the past—and they start to feel guilty about it. You know, unfortunately, instead of really slowing down and really trying to process these feelings and just hearing out the person who’s talking to them—instead of just slowing down and just shutting up for a second and listening, you know—they get really defensive. I think for a lot of folks, it’s like, they’re not denying that the privilege exists. I think, really they’re trying to defend themselves and say, 'I’m better than that.' Which is really unfortunate, ‘cause it’s supposed to be an educational moment. Right?" — Brandon Belcher For the Love of Climbing, Episode 17, "What We Know"
"True peace is not merely the absence of tension. It is the presence of justice." — Martin Luther King Jr. Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965
"We all stare at the same sky." — Unknown
"Everyone is charmed by a little tomboy, a scrappy little girl in overalls with a ponytail and scraped knees, who loves soccer and baseball and comic books and dirt. But what are we charmed by? It’s not just that she’s cute—it’s that she innocently thinks she’s going to stay this way forever. But we all know she won’t, and why is that? Because as much as we like a tomboy, nobody likes a tomman." — Jessi Klein You’ll Grow Out of It
"In her home, she struggles to find the right words to recognize her husband’s efforts. 'I don’t mean to say that I’m not grateful for you,' she tells him, 'but I really hate that I’m expected by society to be super-grateful for the fact that you’re not totally worthless around the house.'" — Lenny Letter
"I was sick of dating funny but emotionally-stunted guys. I wanted to find a Grown Man. It seemed only fair, I decided, that if that was what I wanted then I should make some attempt to become a Grown Woman. But when I looked at what it would mean to become a woman, one of those standard grown-up ladies, like the ones from commercials for gum or soda or shampoo, it all seemed to involve shrinking, rather than growing." — Jessi Klein You’ll Grow Out of It
"My interpretation of the treatment we all recieved is that when a woman is inexperienced, young, and eager, male professionals are pleased to help her learn basic skills and knowledge, almost as if she were a little sister or a protégé. But once she demonstrates her competence and determination to succeed in an all-male domain, she meets resistance and even jealousy. Only after a woman has incontestably proven herself in any number of ways… is she “accepted” into the professional clique or organization." — Anne LaBastille Women and Wilderness
"A woman has to be twice as good to be considered half as good." — Unknown
"No wonder studies show that women's intellectual self-esteem tends to go down as years of education go up. We have been studying our own absence." — Gloria Steinem My Life on the Road
"If we do something over and over, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and over, it becomes normal. If only boys are made class monitor, then at some point we will all think, even if unconsciously, that the class monitor has to be a boy. If we keep seeing only men as heads of corporations, it starts to seem 'natural' that only men should be heads of corporations." — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists
"On the bike, I’d have either a good day or bad day. Typically the good days would be when I had some sort of tailwind; then the next day, I’d have this horrible headwind. I thought a lot about how that’s a good metaphor for life for women that generally have this kind of headwind that they have to work against; as a white male, I probably have that tailwind kind of pushing me through life a little bit. It’s not fair to expect a woman to achieve the same things, yet give her a headwind entire time—and it could be a little headwind or a massive hurricane." — Rob Lea via Shawnte Salabert Adventure Journal, "Rob Lea Swam the English Channel, Climbed Everest, Biked the US—In Six Months"
"I don’t hate white people; I hate the system of white supremacy that gives them asymmetrical power and unmerited privilege. I don’t hate cops; I hate the pattern of police brutality that systematically harasses and kills black people and other people of color with impunity. I don’t hate soldiers; I hate the horror of war that terrorizes the most politically and economically vulnerable among us. I don’t hate rich people; I hate the system of capitalism that creates an elite one percent at the expense of the rest of us. It is precisely because of my love for humanity that I get enraged at systems that prevent people from flourishing and being free. It’s frustrating to see my righteous anger at unjust systems interpreted as hatred for individuals, but it’s more frustrating to see the oppressed suffer while those maladjusted to injustice remain silent. I won’t be silent. Silence is violence." — Nyle Fort
"I know this must feel so strange, but ordinary is just what you’re used to. This may not be ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. This will become ordinary. (Aunt Lydia)" — Margaret Atwood The Handmaid's Tale
"Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse, for some." — Margaret Atwood The Handmaid's Tale
"We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it." — Margaret Atwood The Handmaid's Tale
