"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering." — 4th Doctor Doctor Who, "The Face of Evil"
"Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." — Malcolm Forbes
"Don’t hate what you don’t understand." — John Lennon
"There is a vast difference between [ideas and ideologies]; ideas question and liberate, whereas ideologies justify and dictate." — Paul Hawken A Passion for This Earth: Writers, Scientists, and Activists Explore Our Relationship with Nature and the Environment, "The Ecologist"
"Television news is driven by compelling visuals, not by the intrinsic importance of the story being cast. Complicated, nonphotogenic issues requiring any considerable background information (global warming, for example) get left out of the running every time. Meanwhile, viewers are lured into assuming, at least subconsciously, that this ‘news’ is a random sampling of everything that happened on planet earth that day, and so represents reality." — Barbara Kingsolver Small Wonder
"What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them." — Toni Morrison New York Times Magazine, 1994, "Chloe Wofford Talks About Toni Morrison"
"Decisions are best made by the people affected by them." — Gloria Steinem My Life on the Road
"The most dangerous worldview is the view of those who have never looked at the world." — Alexander von Humboldt
"One thing more dangerous than getting between a grizzly sow and her cub is getting between a businessman and a dollar bill." — Edward Abbey A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
"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"
"When the situation is hopeless, there’s nothing to worry about." — Edward Abbey The Monkey Wrench Gang
"I have been called a curmudgeon, which my obsolescent dictionary defines as a ‘surly, ill-mannered, bad-tempered fellow’. Nowadays, curmudgeon is likely to refer to anyone who hates hypocrisy, cant, sham, dogmatic ideologies, and has the nerve to point out unpleasant facts and takes the trouble to impale these sins on the skewer of humor and roast them over the fires of fact, common sense, and native intelligence. In this nation of bleating sheep and braying jackasses, it then becomes an honor to be labeled curmudgeon." — Edward Abbey A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
"Politicians are like weather vanes. Our job is to make the wind blow." — David Brower
"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"
"We don’t need more condescending friction in humanity. We need less. One step in the direction of less societal friction is to seek commonalities. Another step, and one that is sorely needed, is respect." — James Hatch Medium, "My Semester wWith the Snowflakes"
"To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect." — James Hatch Medium, "My Semester With The Snowflakes"
"True peace is not merely the absence of tension. It is the presence of justice." — Martin Luther King Jr. Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965
