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“Trying to express the leaf, the carvers inadvertently had expressed themselves. But it was a superior kind of self-expression, coming not from narcissism or exhibitionism, but from a union with their subject. It was unconscious, unintended: an unimportant side effect....If you want to express yourself, stop expressing yourself. Better yet, stop wanting to express yourself....Forget yourself. It will improve your work. Let the things you make proceed by their own design.”
― David Esterly, The Lost Carving: A Journey to the Heart of Making

“Secrets, she agreed. The definition of personality, I went on, reminding her that Odysseus wept when he heard the poet sing of his great deeds abroad because, once sung, they were no longer his alone. They belonged to anyone who heard the song.”
― Just Ward, An Unfinished Season

“The greatness of our God lies in the fact that he is both tough minded and tenderhearted. He has qualities both of austerity and gentleness. The Bible, always clear in stressing both attributes of God, expresses his tough mindedness in his justice and wrath and his tenderheartedness in his love and grace. God has two outstretched arms. One is strong enough to surround us with justice and one is gentle enough to embrace us with grace.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love

“Yes, you know damned well what you should have done if you sincerely desired their surrender. You could have dropped it [the atom bomb] on one of their mountains, even in the sea, anywhere they could see what would happen if they persisted in the war, but you chose instead to drop it on peopled cities. I know you, the white mentality: Japanese, Chinese, Africans, we are all subhuman. You would drop an atom bomb on Abeokuta or any of your colonies if it suited you!”
― Wole Soyinka, Aké: The Years of Childhood