In every condition, in sickness and health,
In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth,
At home or abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
Cumberland, v2, New Harp of Columbia

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."
Bertrand Russell

"And let this always weigh down your feet like lead,
to make you move as slowly as a weary man,
to refrain from yes or no when you do not see...

because hasty opinion too often
points the wrong way and then affection
for one's own opinion binds up the intellect [...]"
Dante, the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, Purgatorio XIII: 112-114, 118-120

If you know something is wrong, you can either uphold your own opinion to the letter and hope to 'inform and transform' or your can play along with that failing system as a normal member and attempt to crash it from there. The first is very romantically correct, the second can be far more efficient.
John 'Heritage' from Extropy-chat

The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black, the Thracians that theirs have light blue eyes and red hair."
Xenophanes, 5th century BCE

I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
Stephen F. Roberts

Fundamentalists feel insulted and 'dehumanized' when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms but have no problem with the biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
Anon.

In my experience, the worst thing you can do to an important problem is discuss it.
Simon Gray

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. He is not entitled to his own facts.
Senator Pat Moynihan

The two most beautiful words in the English language are "Cheque Enclosed".
Dorothy Parker

Remember . . . . When tyranny comes to your door, it will be wearing a government uniform.
Anon.

One hears evolution dismissed as "just a theory", as though all of science weren't based on theory and eternally subject to new evidence to the contrary. In science, gravity is "just a theory" - and if you ever drop something and it falls up, they'll reconsider the whole theory for you. That's just how "theoretical" evolution is - constantly subject to evidence and proof. But creationism cannot be tested and proved against evidence using the scientific method - that is why it is not science, it is faith.
Molly Ivans

I am frequently asked if I have visited Israel. Worse yet, it is simply assumed that I have. Well, I don't travel - I really don't. And if I did, I probably wouldn't visit Israel. I remember how it was in 1948, when Israel was being established and all my Jewish friends were ecstatic. I was not. I said, "What are we doing? We are establishing ourselves in a ghetto, in a small corner of a vast Muslim sea. The Muslims will never forget nor forgive, and Israel, as long as it exists, will be embattled." I was laughed at, but I was right. I can't help but feel that the Jews didn't really have the right to appropriate a territory only because two thousand years ago people they considered their ancestors were living there. History moves on and you can't really turn it back.
"Asimov Laughs Again", p 74, Isaac Asimov

Free speech means nothing if it does not mean the freedom to say what others don't like to hear.
Voltairine de Cleyre