“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul, then the way it treats its children.”
“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our young people – one of these is roots, the other is wings.”
“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.”
“Society is indeed a contract – becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”
“War is not women’s history.”
“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.”
“Trainers use humor to point out negative behaviors in ways that teach rather than preach. Mediators tell us that the right joke, or the right moment of levity, can reduce tensions to the point that two adversaries can sit down at the table to consider the possibility of agreement. So why does humor work? Because it shatters preconceptions at the moment when people are forming new perceptions—about their work, their spouse, or life itself. Laughter is a release; it is a moment of sheer pleasure. And in our world of tension and turmoil, the belly laugh is a physical escape valve. Choosing the humor is another matter. We live an era of the put-down, the snide aside, the searing retort. These comments do have their place, but all too often they make us laugh at someone else’s expense. Good humor, nourishing humor for example, enables us to laugh at ourselves for being human. It serves as a window into our souls.”
“I have been struck again and again by how important measuring is to improving the human condition.”
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
