"It is clear that all the valuable things, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society can be traced back through countless generations to certain creative individuals. The use of fire, the cultivation of plants, the steam engine -- each was discovered by one person."

-- Albert Einstein

"We have treasured our educational system also as a firm pillar of the liberal community. This faith, however, is not unanimously shared. One critic has said: 'Education is by its very nature an individual matter ... not geared to mass production. It does not produce people who instinctively go the same way... yet our millions learn the same lessons and spend hours before television sets looking at exactly the same thing at exactly the same time. For one reason and another we are more and more ignoring differences, if not trying to obliterate them. We seem headed toward a standardization of the mind, what Goethe called, 'The deadly commonplace that fetters us all.'" This speaker was not part of a Berkeley rally; it was Edith Hamilton, one of our greatest classicists."

-- Robert F. Kennedy, "To Seek a New World"

"The fourth danger my friends is comfort. The temptation to follow the easy and familiar path so grandly spread before those of us with the privilege of an education. But that is not the path history has marked out for us. There is a Chinese curse that says, 'May he live in interesting times.' Well, like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of great danger and uncertainty, but they are also the most creative times in the history of mankind, and each of us will ultimately judge ourselves on the effort we have contributed to creating a new world society, and the extent to which our ideals and goals have helped shape that effort."

-- Robert F. Kennedy

"I believe this nation should commit itself, before this decade is out, to the goal of landing a man on the moon, and returning him safely to the earth."

-- John F. Kennedy, 1963

"Armstrong is on the moon. Neil Armstrong -- 38 year-old American standing on the surface of the moon on this July 20th, nineteen hundred and sixty-nine."

-- Walter Cronkite, July 20th, 1969

"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by the skeptics or the cynics, whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need people who dream of things that never were."

-- John F. Kennedy

"Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul."

-- Mark Twain

"If man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr., June 1963

"I have a dream that some day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr. August 28, 1963

"If blood be shed, let it be our blood. Cultivate the quiet courage of dying without killing. For man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him."

-- Mahatma Gandhi

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You're playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us. It's in everyone. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

-- Marianne Williamson

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy - the chance to draw back -- always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: 'Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."

-- William H. Murray, Scottish Himalayan Expedition

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of humankind experience it as a whole. Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all."

-- Helen Keller

"When we are not sure, we are alive."

-- Graham Greene

"It is my right to be uncommon -- if I can, I seek opportunity -- not security. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master or bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and face the world boldly and say, this I have done."

-- Dean Alfange's "My Creed"

"Democratic eras, are periods of experiment, innovation, and adventure. I cannot but fear that people may arrive at such a state as to regard every new theory as a peril, every innovation as irksome toil, every social improvement as a stepping-stone to revolution, and so refuse to move altogether for fear of being moved too far."

-- Alexis de Tocqueville

"And after they had explored all of the stars in the universe and all of the planets around each sun they realized they were alone, and they were glad, for they now realized that would have to become all of the things they had hoped to find."

-- Lanford Wilson

"The result of what Kennedy did can be understood by analogy. It is as if he created a building named, 'A man on the moon in ten years,' and inside the building he put offices for all the various ideas, positions, notions and people that had to do with space flight. The first office inside the front door of the building in 1961 (innacurate) would have been called, 'it can't be done.' This office would have been inhabited by the skeptics and the cynics.A content or position is threatened by any opposite position. Given two opposing positions, only one can survive. On the other hand, a context gives space to, it literally allows, it even encourages, positions that are apparently the opposite. In fact, the most important position in a newly-created context is the position which appears to oppose the context."

-- Werner Erhard

"We seek to go to the moon. We seek to go to the moon and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

-- John F. Kennedy

"The main village, which includes the Railroad station, is built around a village green or informal park. In the park will be benches, a bandstand, drinking fountain, trees, and shrubs. It will be a place for people to sit and rest; mothers and grandmothers can watch over small children at play. I want it to be very relaxing, cool, and inviting. Around the park will be built the town. At one end will be the Railroad Station; at the other end, the Town Hall. The Hall will be built to represent a Town Hall, but actually we will use it as our administration building. It will be the headquarters of the entire project. Adjoining the Town hall will be the Fire and Police Stations. The Fire Station will contain practical fire apparatus, scaled down. The police station will also be put to practical use. Here the visitors will report all violations, lost articles, lost kids, etc. In it we could have a little jail where the kids could look in. We might even have characters in it."

-- Walt Disney, in a Memo Describing Plans for Disneyland

"America was a great force in the world, with immense prestige, long before we became a great military power. That power has come to us and we cannot renounce it, but neither can we afford to forget that the real constructive force in the world comes not from bombs but from imaginative ideas, warm sympathies, and a generous spirit."

-- Robert F. Kennedy

"Goethe tells us in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment, 'Stay, thou art so fair.'"

-- Robert F. Kennedy

"We should, I believe, beware of the pitfalls described by Taine: 'Imagine a man who sets out on a voyage equipped with a pair of spectacles that magnify things to an extraordinary degree. A hair on his hand, a spot on the tablecloth, the shifting fold of a coat, all will attract his attention; at this rate, he will not go far, he will spend his day taking six steps and will never get out of his room.' We have to get out of this room."

-- Robert F. Kennedy

"Take heart. Suffering, when it climbs highest, lasts but a little time."

-- Aeschylus

"Great spirits meet calamity greatly."

-- Aeschylus

"God, whose law it is that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."

-- Aeschylus

"Life for him was an adventure, perilous indeed, but men are not made for safe harbors."

-- Edith Hamilton

"He tells himself over and over again in any choice presented to him, 'Prefer the hard.' This holds good not only in great matters, but also in very small, in fighting by the frozen Danube and in starting the day early."

-- Marcus Aurelius

"The adherents of the old order have a powerful ally in the natural law of inertia inherent in humanity which is, as it were, a natural defense against change. Thus pacifism faces no easy struggle. The question of whether violence or law shall prevail between states is the most vital of the problems of our eventful era, and the most serious in its repercussions. The beneficial results of a secure world peace are almost inconceivable, but even more inconceivable are the consequences of the threatening world war which many misguided people are prepared to precipitate. The advocates of pacifism are well aware how meager are their resources of personal influence and power. They know that they are still few in number and weak in authority, but when they realistically consider themselves and the ideal they serve, they see themselves as the servants of the greatest of all causes."

-- Bertha von Suttner, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1905

"Here is a test to find out if your mission in life is complete: if you're alive, it isn't"

-- Richard Bach