“It costs me nothing for curtains, for I have no gazers to shut out but the sun and moon, and I am willing that they should look in...and if he [the sun] is sometimes too warm a friend, I find it still better economy to retreat behind some curtain which nature has provided.”
― Walden or, Life in the Woods
― Walden or, Life in the Woods
“My indirect exposure to war for most of my life constantly pushed me toward seeking, and becoming comfortable with, a pro-peace philosophy, as well as refusing to be intimidated by the false charges that such a position is unpatriotic, un-American, and expresses a lack of concern for military personnel.”
― Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity
― Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity
“Giving up on the ancient tradition of trusting in the god-kings for protection and sustenance is the real challenge.”
― Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity
― Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity
“I've noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my thirty years of teaching: schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers to care and do work very, very hard, the institution is psychopathic -- it has no conscience. It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to a different cell where he must memorize that humans and monkeys derive from a common ancestor.”
― Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
― Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
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