Jeff > Jeff's Quotes

“The earth has a skin and that skin has diseases; one of its diseases is called man.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Conventional wisdom would have one believe that it is insane to resist this, the mightiest of empires, but what history really shows is that today's empire is tomorrow's ashes; that nothing lasts forever, and that to not resist is to acquiesce in your own oppression. The greatest form of sanity that anyone can exercise is to resist that force that is trying to repress, oppress, and fight down the human spirit.”
― Mumia Abu-Jamal

“Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great fundamental change in society, hence they do not believe in vote begging, nor political campaigns, but rather in the development of self-thinking individuals.”
― Lucy Parsons

“In order to know virtue, we must first acquaint ourselves with vice.”
― Marquis de Sade

“To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell.”
― Marquis de Sade

“Is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?”
― Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“God's only excuse is that he does not exist”
― Stendhal

“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”
― Bertrand Russel

“It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism.”
― Angela Y. Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement

“I don't think we have any alternative other than remaining optimistic. Optimism is an absolute necessity, even if it's only optimism of the will, as Gramsci said, and pessimism of the intellect.”
― Angela Y. Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement

“You didn't see me on television, you didn't see news stories about me. The kind of role that I tried to play was to pick up pieces or put together pieces out of which I hoped organization might come. My theory is, strong people don't need strong leaders.”
― Ella Baker

“Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Atheism is a way of humility. It's to think oneself to be an animal, as we are actually and to allow oneself to become human.”
― André Comte-Sponville, Présentations de la philosophie

“Life is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal.”
― Neil Gaiman

“Ye Hypocrites, are these your pranks
To murder men and gie God thanks
Desist for shame, proceed no further
God won't accept your thanks for murder.”
― Robert Burns

“A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer.”
― George MacDonald, Lilith

“If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”
― Harriet Tubman

“The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them — the sense that we have a monopoly on the truth; that those other people who believe in all these stupid doctrines are morons; that if you're sensible, you'll listen to us; and if not, to hell with you. This is nonconstructive. It does not get our message across. It condemns us to permanent minority status.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“The American Indians were Communists. They were. Every anthropologist will tell you they were Communists. No rich, no poor. If somebody needed something the community chipped in.”
― Pete Seeger

“I’ve never sung anywhere without giving the people listening to me a chance to join in - as a kid, as a lefty, as a man touring the U.S.A. and the world, as an oldster. I guess it’s kind of a religion with me. Participation. That’s what’s going to save the human race.”
― Pete Seeger

“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?”
― Ernest Hemingway

“They (penguins) then fall madly in love and live happily ever after.
-
And so you ask yourself: "If a penguin can have a worthwhile, stimulating relationship, why the hell can't I?"
-
Or maybe you ask yourself: "Would I be happier if I started dating a penguin”
― Bradley Trevor Greive, Looking For Mr. Right

“In an age when mass pleasures like television are becoming more feeble and homogeneous, the very act of discrimination becomes a form of protest. At a time when mass marketing of food produces a product so disgusting that it has to be wrapped in distracting gimmicks to be sold, the mere fact of paying attention to what you eat and drink and telling the truth about taste is a revolutionary act.”
― Lynn Hoffman

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”
― Terry Pratchett, Diggers

“I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?”
― Jean Kerr

“I had once believed that we were all masters of our fate--that we could mold our lives into any form we pleased... I had overcome deafness and blindness sufficiently to be happy, and I supposed that anyone could come out victorious if he threw himself valiantly into life's struggle. But as I went more and more about the country I learned that I had spoken with assurance on a subject I knew little about... I learned that the power to rise in the world is not within the reach of everyone.”
― Helen Keller

“God's only excuse is that He doesn't exist," remarked Voltaire after a natural disaster that killed many people. Nietzsche loved this quote and wished he'd coined it!”
― Voltaire