"Success is never so interesting as struggle--not even to the successful, not even to the most mercernary forms of ambition."Willa Cather
"This administration has many things on its mind besides the welfare of overstretched, ill-equipped G.I.'s dodging bombers and snipers in Iraq. In addition to the inauguration, which will cost tens of millions of dollars, Mr. Bush is busy with his obsessive campaign against 'junk and frivolous lawsuits,' his effort to further lighten the tax load on the nation's wealthiest individuals and corporations, and his campaign to cut the legs from under the proudest achievement of the New Deal, Social Security.Bob Herbert"So much for America's wartime priorities."
"...He's located one of the paradoxes of the age. Highly educated young people are tutored, taught and monitored in all aspects of their lives, except the most important, which is character building. When it comes to this, most universities leave them alone."David Brooks
"The Democrats have ceded to Republicans a monopoly on the moral and spiritual sources of American politics. They will not recover as a party until they again have candidates who can speak to those moral and spiritual yearnings--but turn them to progressive purposes in domestic policy and foreign affairs."Michael J. Sandel
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."Herman Goering
"The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding), lies here, food for worms; but the work shall not be lost, for it will (as he believed) appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author."Benjamin Franklin
"Wars are often the cause of further wars because they fuel deep hatreds, create situations of injustice and trample upon people's dignity and rights. Wars generally do not resolve the problems for which they are fought, and, therefore, in addition to causing horrendous damage, they prove ultimately futile. War is a defeat for humanity."Rev. John Burke
"Today the weapons of mass destruction are poverty and corruption."Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez
"How can it be that even today there are still people dying of hunger? Condemned to illiteracy? Lacking the most basic medical care? Without a roof over their heads? Christians must learn to make their act of faith in Christ by discerning His voice in the cry for help that rises from this world of poverty."Pope John Paul II
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."President Bush
"There's a terrible sense of dread filtering across America at the moment and it's not simply because of the continuing fear of terrorism and the fact that the nation is at war. It's more frightening than that. It grows out of the suspicion that we all may be passengers in a vehicle that has made a radically wrong turn and is barreling along a dark road, with its headlights off and with someone behind the wheel who may not know how to drive."Bob Herbert
Reed: "If you were shown a video of a United States marine or an American citizen in the control of a foreign power, in a cellblock, naked, with a bag over their head, squatting with their arms uplifted for 45 minutes, would you describe that as a good interrogation technique or a violation of the Geneva Convention?"Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode IslandPace: "I would describe it as a violation, sir."
"Every moment and every event of every person's life on earth plants something in the soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of people. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because we are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love."Thomas Merton
"It is essential to conduct war with constant regard to the peace you desire."Sir Basil Liddell Hart
"We are in danger of losing something much more important than just the war in Iraq. We are in danger of losing America as an instrument of moral authority and inspiration in the world. I have never known a time in my life when America and its president were more hated around the world than today. I was just in Japan, and even young Japanese dislike us. It's no wonder that so many Americans are obsessed with the finale of the sitcom "Friends" right now. They're the only friends we have, and even they're leaving."Thomas Friedman
"Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing."Dr. Wernher von Braun
"What we need desperately is a clear mission, a believable strategy for success, a morally viable exit plan and international involvement. Instead, the administration's current strategy seems to be simply urging perseverance. Staying the course is noble when the cause is right. But perseverance for the sake of perseverance is foolhardy."New York Times editorial
"There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, 'Business as usual.' But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening. These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves."Yann Martel
"Writing about the Holocaust and modernity..., Bauman made a humane but devastating statement. 'The most frightening news brought about by the Holocaust and what we learned of its perpetrators was not the likelihood that "this" could be done to us, but the idea that we could do it.' If the significance of S-21...could be reduced to a sentence, Bauman's is the one I would choose."
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David Chandler, historian
writing about the Khmer Rouge's S-21, the Tuol Sleng torture center connected with the Killing Fields in Cambodia
"It is better to arrest ten people by mistake than to let one guilty person go free."A principle
"In a time of crisis, uncertainty, and policy debate, one would think that Christians in the United States would agree: When in doubt, we should support our leader and remain loyal to our nation. Our leader, of course, is Jesus Christ. Our nation, of course, is the people called church, spread around the globe."Gerald Schlabach
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