3401) "Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open."-John Barrymore
3402) "We are the bird's eggs. Bird's eggs, flowers, butterflies, rabbits, cows, sheep; we are caterpillars; we are leaves of ivy and sprigs of wallflower. We are women. We rise from the wave. We are gazelle and doe, elephant and whale, lilies and roses and peach, we are air, we are flame, we are oyster and pearl, we are girls. We are woman and nature. And he says he cannot hear us speak. But we hear."-Susan Griffin, Woman and Nature
3403) "As we come to know, accept, and explore our feelings, they will become sanctuaries and fortresses and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring of ideas-the house of difference so necessary to change and the conceptualization of any meaningful action."-Audre Lorde
3404) "I cannot be an Asian American on Monday, a woman on Tuesday, a lesbian on Wednesday, a worker/student on Thursday, and a political radical on Friday. I am all these things every day."-Emily Woo Yamaski
3405) "I wish that the leaves would fly south every fall and the birds would die and fall to the ground. That way I could get my cat to do all the raking."-Andy Pierson
3406) "I bet that Van Gogh guy cut off his ear by accident, then made up that 'lost love' story so he wouldn't look stupid."-Andy Pierson
3407) "Willpower and talent are an inseparable duo."
3408) "A smile has only one translation across barriers - warmth."
3409) "Yes, there are two paths you can go by/ But in the long run/ There's still time to change the road you're on."-Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
3410) "One day in an emergency waiting room, a little girl turned to her mother and asked, 'What is sex?' People turned their full attention to Mom. I mean, this was better than whatever was on the waiting-room television - better than Jerry Springer. I mean this was real life. How do you answer a six-year-old girl? What is sex? This is one hot topic. You know, kids seem to know so much more that I did at their age; they are exposed to so much more these days on television and at the movies. How was Mom going to answer? I'm the kind of guy who just goes ahead and answers the question right away, like I not only know the answer, but understand the question. So I'm curious about how Mom is going to tell this little girl about how babies are made. Or how Mom is going to dodge this difficult question. I mean, is Mom going to talk to a little child about safe sex? I'm pretty sure Mom is not going to talk about ways to have sex; although you just really never know what might happen in the emergency room. But she surprises me; she doesn't think in the way I think or respond the way I usually respond. Instead, she pauses. I hardly ever pause. She then thoughtfully asks her daughter, 'What do you mean, dear?' The little girl responds, 'Well, Mom, I was looking at this paper and it says sex - M/F. Am I an M or an F?' Mom's face breaks into a huge smile. The waiting room patrons resume their usual chatter. And I laugh. I would have answered the wrong questions. I had heard the question, but I really did not listen to what the little girl was saying."-Adam Saperston, Chicken Soup for the College Soul
3411) "I believe that when it comes to friends you usually pick people who have similar interests and have some of the same qualities as yourself. But I also agree with whoever said that opposites attract because sometimes you just need a break from yourself, ya know?"-Priscilla Points
3412) "I have never understood why when you pass a stranger on the street you ask them how they are doing, but then don't wait for the answer. I know that if you did wait for their answer they probably wouldn't go into much detail, but still, just think about this. What if a person you pass on the street is thinking about committing suicide and you ask them how they are? If you just wait for their answer like you should, they might just tell you how terrible they are feeling and that they are thinking of committing suicide. You might be able to change their minds and make them feel better about themselves and therefore save their lives. Ok, ok, maybe I've gone a bit to far, but the next time you're passing a person on the street, at least smile at them. For me."-Priscilla Points
3413) "Penguins mate for life. That doesn't surprise me much because they all look alike. It's not like they're going to meet a really new, great looking penguin someday."
3414) "I read of a man who stood to speak/ At the funeral of a friend./ He referred to the dates on her tombstone/ From the beginning...to the end./ He noted that first came her date of birth/ And spoke the following date with tears,/ But he said what mattered most of all/ Was the dash between those years. (1934 -1998)/ For that dash represents all the time/ That she spent alive on earth.../ And now only those who loved her/ Know what that little line is worth./ For it matters not, how much we own:/ The cars...the house...the cash./ What matters is how we live and love/ And how we spend our dash./ So think about this long and hard.../ Are there things you'd like to change?/ For you never know how much time is left,/ That can still be rearranged./ If we could just slow down enough/ To consider what's true and real,/ And always try to understand/ The way other people feel./ And be less quick to anger,/ And show appreciation more/ And love the people in our lives/ Like we've never loved before./ If we treat each other with respect,/ And more often wear a smile../ Remembering that this special dash/ Might only last a little while./ So, when your eulogy's being read/ With your life's actions to rehash.../ Would you be proud of the things they say/ About how you spent your dash?"
3415) "I think that the inability to love is the central problem, because that inability masks a certain terror, and that terror is the terror of being touched. And if you can't be touched, you can't be changed. And if you can't be changed, you can't be alive."-James Baldwin
3416) "Our 'falling places' are many: we tumble feetlast into disaster, sink into pessimism, slip into love, and sometimes even let our knees buckle under us in laughter. I like the last one best."-Edie Carey
3417) "And I'll feel better in the morning/ The pain will fade as time goes by."-Mighty Mighty Bosstones
3418) "Because we're not 'real' queers and our attraction to the same sex is only a phase and we'll just leave for a member of the opposite sex any day and our way of loving is only a period of confusion and when we haven't changed in 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 years we are still just confused and we see personal ads that say 'no bisexual' and when we date members of the opposite sex we are holding onto 'straight privilege' and when we date members of the same sex they don't trust us and when we dare to suggest that we have our own identity we are being ungrateful or difficult or radical and if we don't no one will know who we really are and every historical figure or celebrity who has ever had a same-sex affair was really gay or lesbian no matter how s/he may have felt about any husband or wife or lover of the opposite sex and the government does not acknowledge our existence by labeling us as something that fits their definition of who we are even though it doesn't fit our own and we're told we can't make up our minds and when we make a long-term commitment to a member of the opposite sex we're really just straight and when we don't choose to make a commitment to anyone at all then it's because we aren't capable of it and for lots and lots of other reasons, we are part of the bisexual pride movement."
3419) "It's no matter if you're born to play the king or pawn, for the line is thinly drawn 'tween joy and sorrow."-Paul Simon
3420) "How come I can pick my ears/ but not my nose/ who made up that rule anyway/ how can you say that's the way it is/ that's just the way it goes/ why don't you decide for yourself/ what you can do/ and what you can say/ how come I can pick my friends/ but not my enemies/ what is it about me that offends/ what is it about me/ 'cause you know I'm only five foot two/ and I'm giggly wiggly/ tell me again, what did I do/ why are you scared of me/ I fight with love/ and I laugh with rage/ you've gotta live light enough/ to see the humor/ and long enough to see some change/ I think shy is boring/ I think depressed is too/ I think pretty is nice/ but I'd rather see something new/ all these plastic people/ got their plastic surgery/ but we got a big big beautiful/ we got it for free/ who you gonna be/ if you can't be yourself/ you can't get it from t.v./ you can't force it on/ anybody else/ you know they come to clear cut/ they come to strip mine/ they come for some of my big butt/ my big brain/ or just a little time/ they wanna take me out to dinner/ think I'm a bitch if I don't go/ seems like the people who actually like me/ won't allow me to say no/ your idea of a conversation/ is the third degree/ but I don't really know you/ and I don't really want to talk about me/ 'cause I'm not going to pretend/ that I don't pick my nose/ that's just the way it is, my friends/ that's just the way it goes/ this is who I am/ what I do/ and what I say/ if you like it, let it be/ if you don't, please do the same"-Ani DiFranco, "Pick Yer Nose"
3421) "Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed citizens to change the world. Indeed it has never been done otherwise."-Margaret Mead
3422) "When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed"-Brian Warner
3423) "No one gets out of the game of life alive. You either die in the bleachers, or on the field. So, you might as well play out on the field, and go for it."-Les Brown
3424) "i want somebody who/ sees the pointlessness/ and still keeps their purpose in mind/ i want somebody who/ has a tortured soul some of the time/ i want somebody who/ will either put out for me/ or put me out of misery/ or maybe just put it all to words and make me go/ you know, i never heard it put that way/ make me go what did you just say!?/ i want somebody who/ can hold my interest/ hold it and never let it fall/ someone who can flatten me/ with a kiss that hits like a fist/ or a sentence that stops me/ like a brick wall/ if you hear me talking/ listen to what i'm not saying/ if you hear me playing guitar/ listen to what i'm not playing/ and don't ask me to put words/ to all the spaces between notes/ don't ask me to put words/ to all the silences i wrote/ in fact, if you have to ask, forget it/ do and you'll regret it/ i am tired of being the interesting one/ i'm tired of having fun for two/ just lay yourself on the line/ i might just lay myself down by you/ but don't sit behind your eyes/ and wait for me to surprise you/ i want somebody who/ can make me scream until it's funny/ give me a run for my money/ i want somebody who can twist me up in knots/ tell me, for the woman who has everything/ what have you got?/ i want somebody who's not afraid of me/ or anyone else/ in other words i want someone/ who is not afraid/ of themselves/ do you think i'm asking too much?"-Ani DiFranco, "Asking Too Much"
3425) "...it begins to look as though at least a predisposition to homosexuality is genetic; and that this predisposition is widespread, so that there at least as many gay people in the world as there are, say, redheads. Now, couldn't we, as a society, if we wanted to, tell all these disgusting redheaded people the following? 'OK, hair color may be genetic... but letting it grow out, undyed and unshaved, where decent blonde and brunette people can SEE it - where KIDS can see it - that's a LIFESTYLE CHOICE you are making. It's a shame if some of our hotheaded citizens take "red-bashing" a little too far sometimes, or if some God-fearing businesses fire your people or turn them away at the sight of red eyebrow roots, but don't ask us to put "special protections" on the books for you!' In the real world if you tried saying this to a real redhead, the response would be, 'You're being silly. Red hair is beautiful, and that's just who we are - why should you be allowed to force us to hide it?' Of course if you had dogs and teargas handy, they might take you more seriously! What I tell my fellow straights is, HOMOPHOBIA IS A LIFESTYLE CHOICE. (Hmm, good Tshirt.) If you want to demonstrate nurture over nature, that's a great place to start."-Tom Neff
3426) "Talkis the key to liberation, one's tongue the very machete of freedom."-Alice Walker, The Temple of My Familiar
3427) "there is no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen."-D. H. Lawrence
3428) "There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way."-Christopher Morley
3429) "It is axiomatic that if we do not define ourselves for ourselves, we will be defined by others-for their use and to our detriment."-Audre Lorde
3430) "I understand my insignificance, but I revel in my greatness."-Jonathan W. Barada
3431) "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make."-John Lennon and Paul McCartney
3432) "In an argument, the one who talks the most is usually wrong."
3433) "Poetry is lyrics with the music built in."-Tim Bellows
3434) "The goal is not frustration. Throw that from your mind. The goal is complete arrival, the end of all goals of the animal body, the mechanical mind. Then the maker of winds and songs and lights presents to us another mountain--for free. We die on that mountain and leap, giddy, free of even the most rarefied air."-Tim Bellows
3435) "Less is more: If we want it, we ascend, and minerals, dust, engine sounds, sunlight, flute sounds, the atoms of thought--all these grow less and less. What grows more? Nothingness, purity, love in unspeaking worlds where we earn our way. The mystery for us is how to somehow link thought and intuition with those worlds, then gain their invisible 'more.' Then give it down here on the soil. Some will solve the mystery by finding the most ancient word, singing it in the heartfelt way, and letting go."-Tim Bellows
3436) "Poetry is awe--then the attempt to make something out of that flash, to achieve a playing with words. In fact, to express some ecstasy the best words can never caress."-Tim Bellows
3437) "We all know that art is not truth, it is a lie that helps us realize truth."-Pablo Picasso
3438) "Laughing and crying is what a human being does when there's nothing else he can do."-Kurt Vonnegut
3439) "They say that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. If I learned to accept that pain is part of life, I will be better able to endure the difficult times, and then move on, leaving the pain behind me."
3440) Guard within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to loose without regret, how to acquire without meanness, and you will be a true man."-Kurt Vonnegut
3441) "If arithmetical skill is the measure of intelligence, then computers have been more intelligent than all human beings all along. If the ability to play chess is the measure, then there are computers now in existence that are more intelligent than any but a very few human beings. However, if insight, intuition, creativity, the ability to view a problem as a whole and guess the answer by the 'feel' of the situation, is the measure of intelligence, then computers are very unintelligent indeed. Nor can we see right now how this deficiency in computers can be easily remedied, since human beings cannot program a computer to be creative or intuitive for the very good reason that we do not know what we ourselves do when we exercise these qualities."-Isaac Asimov
3442) "You have to forget about what people say, when you're supposed to be loving, or when you're supposed to die. You have to forget about all of these things. You have to go on and be crazy! Craziness is like heaven."-Jimi Hendrix
3443) "Expect everything and the unexpected never happens."-Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
3444) "A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."-Ingrid Bergman
3445) "If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. If we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcomed."-Charlotte Bronte
3446) "Anger is just a cowardly extension of sadness. It's a lot easier to be angry at someone that it is to tell them you're hurt."-Alanis Morisette
3447) "It's possible to forget how alive we really are. We can become dry and tired, just existing, instead of really living. We need to remind ourselves of the juice of life, and make that a habit. Find those places inside that jump for joy, and do things that bring out your best, most magic self."-SARK
3448) "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
3449) "Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace."-Albert Schweitzer
3450) "You and I want our lives to matter. We want our lives to make a real difference - to be of genuine consequence in the world. We know that there is no satisfaction in merely going through the motions, even if those motions make us successful, or even if we have arranged to make those motions pleasant. We want to know we have made some impact on the world. In fact, you and I want to contribute to the quality of life. We want to make the world work."-Werner Erhard
3451) "It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument."-William G. McAdoo
3452) "An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't."-Anatole France
3453) "If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are gone, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing."-Benjamin Franklin
3454) "For thousands of years women were not the creative forces, not the Da Vincis, not the Mozarts, just the muses. You really didn't get a lot of lightning rods that were the women. You don't hear about the great sonatas written by the great female composers. And of course, they were out there somewhere, but there wasn't a place for acknowledgment. Now the dam is broken. It was pent up for so long and now there's a deluge. Suddenly women are the creative forces that we wanted to be for thousands of years."-Tori Amos
3455) "Sticks and stones may break your bones, but names will damn near kill ya."- Gretchen Metzger
3456) "Tears and sweat are both salty in taste, but each renders a different result-tears will get you sympathy, while sweat will get you results."
3457) "We said we'd walk together baby come what may/ That come the twilight should we lose our way/ If as we're walking a hand should slip free/ I'll wait for you/ And should I fall behind/ Wait for me/ We swore we'd travel darlin' side by side/ We'd help each other stay in stride/ But each lover's steps fall so differently/ But I'll wait for you/ And if I should fall behind/ Wait for me/ Now everyone dreams of a love lasting and true/ But you and I know what this world can do/ So let's make our steps clear that the other may see/ And I'll wait for you/ If I should fall behind/ Wait for me/ Now there's a beautiful river in the valley ahead/ There 'neath the oak's bough soon we will be wed/ Should we lose each other in the shadow of the evening trees/ I'll wait for you/ And should I fall behind/ Wait for me/ Darlin' I'll wait for you/ Should I fall behind/ Wait for me"-Bruce Springsteen, "If I Should Fall Behind"
3458) "Six humans trapped by happenstance/ In bleak and bitter cold/ Each one possessed a stick of wood/ Or so the story's told./ Their dying fire in need of logs/ The first man held his back,/ For one of the faces around the fire/ He noticed one was black./ The next man looking cross the way/ Saw not one of his church,/ And couldn't bring himself to give/ The fire his stick of birch./ The third one sat in tattered clothes/ And gave his coat a hitch,/ Why should his log be put to use/ To warm the idle rich?/ The rich man just sat back and thought/ Of the wealth he had in store,/ And how to keep what he had earned/ From the lazy shiftless poor./ The black man's face bespoke revenge/ As the fire passed from his sight,/ For all he saw in his stick of wood/ Was a chance to spite the white./ The last man of this forlorn group/ Did nought expect to gain,/ Giving only to those who gave/ Was how he played the game./ Their logs held tight in death's still hands/ Was proof of human sin,/ They didn't die from the cold without/ They died from the cold within."-James Patrick Kinney, "The Cold Within"
3459) "Does any human being ever realize life while they live it, every minute?"-Thornton Wilder
3460) "So they said it was the year o' the woman/ I believe it was the year of sex/ Maybe this'll be the year o' the human/ Maybe that would be a bit complex for/ All these endless aberrations/ From meaningful expectations"-Rachael Sage
3461) "And if there's anything I do it's change and grow. I'm just a living being. Every year of my life I seem to learn that everything I know is wrong."-Ani DiFranco
3462) "He not busy being born is busy dying."-Bob Dylan
3463) "We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?"-Jean Cocteau
3464) "I don't write books because I have answers. I write books because I have questions. What we are is the questions that we ask, not the answers that we provide. It's all about the process of self-examination. I think that's what the best writing always contains."-John Edgar Wideman
3465) "You grow up the day you have your first real laugh at yourself."-Ethel Barrymore
3466) "A child's kiss is magic. Why else would they be so stingy with them?"-Harvey Fierstein Marion, "On Tidy Endings"
3467) "You're not a child any longer./ What makes you think that the world is gonna love you?"-Jess Klein
3468) "I think everybody's scared. But if you don't let your fears stop you, that's bravery."-Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues
3469) "This is what courage is. It's not just living through the nightmare, it's doing something with it afterward. It's being brave enough to talk about it to other people. It's trying to organize to change things."-Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues
3470) "Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon."-Susan Ertz
3471) "I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind/ Got my paper and I was free"-Emily Saliers
3472) "I'm recording our history now on the bedroom wall/ and when we leave the landlord will come and paint over it all"-Ani DiFranco
3473) "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."-Ralph Waldo Emerson
3474) "Keep you Eye on the Ball,/ Your Shoulder to the Wheel,/ Your Nose to the Grindstone,/ Your Feet on the Ground,/ Your Head on your Shoulders./ Now...to get something DONE!"
3475) "I Speak Today/ As One Black Gay Man/ I Speak Because/ Barbara Jordan/ Langston Hughes, and/ The Reverend James Cleveland/ could not speak/ I Speak for myself,/ but I also speak for my uncle,/ a black gay man/ who could not be here/ because he was murdered in his own bedroom/ I speak to stop the violence/ from Wyoming to Alabama/ and all points in between,/ and yes, in Texas and New York as well/ I Speak to tell/ George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani/ not to pack your bags for Washington/ because you will not be living here next year/ I Speak knowing that/ the right-wing may vilify me,/ closeted gay men may deny me/ and religious demagogues may decry me/ I Speak to tell Jesse Helms,/ and Trent Lott,/ and Strom Thurmond,/ your days of division are numbered/ I Speak Because/ two homosexuals who share their lives together/ deserve at least the same rights/ as two heterosexual strangers who met last night on prime time TV/ I Speak Because/ James Baldwin/ Lorraine Hansberry/ Bayard Rustin/ Audre Lorde/ Glen Burke/ Simon Nkoli, and/ Bessie Smith/ could not be here/ I Speak as a member of the family/ because there are problems in the family/ that cannot be healed/ by sweeping them under the sterilized, sanitized rug/ of homogenized homosexuality/ I Speak Because/ Martin Luther King/ and Huey Newton/ would support my cause/ I Speak To Resist/ the commercialization/ and commodification/ of a mainstream 'gay lifestyle'/ that enriches a privileged few/ and impoverishes the masses/ with a bankrupt culture of uniformity/I Speak Because/ two people sitting in a hotel room/ should not be able to dictate/ the entire lesbigaytrans agenda/ I Speak Because/ Sojourner Truth/ Harriet Tubman/ Malcolm X, and/ Frederick Douglass/ have taught me the value of struggle/ I Speak to remind you, and myself, that I can/ hold my lover's hand/ in Anacostia or Harlem or South Central or Oakland/ if I choose to,/ and I am not always found/ in Dupont Circle or Christopher Street or Santa Monica Boulevard or the/ Castro/ I Speak Because/ not all blacks are straight,/ and not all gays are white/ I Speak so I can get a taxicab/ not just when I leave this stage,/ but when I leave the White House/ or leave your house, after a fabulous affair,/ or any house on any street,/ that I will not be judged by the color of my skin/ I speak because/ Alice Walker reminds me/ that no person is your friend/ who demands your silence/ or denies your right to grow/ I Speak because/ nobody else can speak for me/ but me/ I Speak to help/ repair the breach/ that has divided us/ black from white/ straight from gay/ male from female/ I Speak to help/ repair the breach/ that has excluded the voices/ of youth and seniors,/ the poor and middle class,/ bisexuals, and transgendered people,/ people with disabilities,/ and all people of color/ I Speak with hope/ because Dr. King reminds me/ that only when it is dark enough/ can you see the stars/ I Speak Because/ we must broaden the movement/ to see the intersection of/ race, gender, class, religion, sexuality, and ethnicity/ I Speak not to get/ my place at the table/ but to demand a whole new table arrangement/ that welcomes all those who have been excluded/ I Speak not to gain privilege/ but to challenge the whole concept/ of privilege itself/ I Speak to Say, unequivocally, once and for all,/ that blacks and gays are not the same,/ that racism is not the same as homophobia,/ and that the civil rights struggles are not identical/ I Speak Because/ it matters not/ which group is most oppressed,/ or which was first oppressed,/ or whether they are identically oppressed./ What matters is that no group or class of people/ should be oppressed/ I Speak Because/ the personal is political/ every time we are not ashamed,/ to go beyond our boundaries,/ to express our love,/ to come out,/ to volunteer,/ to make a donation,/ to write a letter,/ to forward an email,/ to register to vote,/ or simply to speak/ Finally, I Speak to offer a choice/ between fear and love/ I Speak Because/ fear is negativity,/ scarcity,/ and/ falsity/ I Speak Because/ love is positivity,/ abundance,/ and/ truth/ I Speak Because/ fear is unnatural and learned/ and love is natural and innate/ I Speak so that/ my faith may be used as a tool for love,/ and not a weapon of hate/ I Speak because/ I refuse to worship/ at the altar/ of religious bigotry/ and self-righteous piety/ I Speak to Pray/ for Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell/ that they may learn/ the true meaning of unconditional love/ I Speak so that/ one more black gay man or woman may find the courage/ to rise up in church today and challenge a minister/ who spews out the vicious bile of religious-based homophobia/ I Speak so that/ Angie and Debbie/ and Alveda and Reggie/ may one day understand/ that God is love/ and love is for everyone/ I Speak because/ I have no power to make these dreams happen/ unless someone, somewhere hears these words as her own/ and decides to act/ I Speak/ as a proud African-American/ same-gender-loving/ Christian-identified man/ unashamed of who I am/ unwilling to be divided into identity camps, and/ unbowed by the demons of hatred that would incite me/ to fear instead of love./ I speak because Audre Lorde tells me,/ 'When I dare to be powerful,/ to use my strength in the service of my vision,/ then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.'/ I Speak Today/ As One Proud Black Gay Man"-Keith Boykin, "A Poem for the Millennium March"
3476) "We're all stuck in the gutter. It's just that some of us look at the stars."
3477) "A commencement speaker is like a body at a wake--necessary but not expected to say very much."-Andrea Mitchell
3478) "It's dreams and laughing / that make up the good. From these / invent patterns and steps we once called impossible. / You will walk them. And in time / become like the polish on wood, / hold a brightness that sails a blue wind."-Tim Bellows, A Racing Up the Sky
3479) "Penn, all of its experiences, and friendships really helped me to grow, learn from others and begin to see the world as this open place without black and white but rather lots of colors, all shades, and even a little gray...one that included everyone from the [transgender people] to that one lone Republican at the Bill Clinton speech...so now with the wonderful new way of viewing things when I come home it's a little hard, I've now changed and that's just not how I think...so I guess what it comes down to is that I hope I can help my parents and friends to see the world a little bit bigger and brighter just like each of you helped me."-Sara Shenkan
3480) "I intend to stop speaking before you stop listening"-George J. Mitchell in a commencement speech
3481) "There is a dreamlike quality to every commencement day. But the veil trembles more mysteriously if you are graduating in the year 2000. It makes you wonder if the date is a destiny or an accident. A turning point in your life coincided with a turning point in our era. It is like the moment when a tide has risen to its highest and then rests: everything is at the full and yet everything is volatile. You stand at a boundary. Behind you is your natural habitat, as it were, the ground of your creaturely being, the old haunts where you were nurtured; in front of you is a less knowable prospect of invitation and challenge, the testing ground of your possibilities. You stand between whatever binds you to your past and whatever might be unbounded in your future."-Seamus Heaney in a commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania
3482) "As a syndicated cartoonist, I have a huge audience. They tell me it's over 25 million readers. This might be cause for a little intimidation were it not for my handy science background reminding me that this is merely one 250-billionth the number of sodium ions in a single grain of salt. Trust me, anybody can write for salt."-Bill Amend in a commencement speech
3483) "Over the years I have learned that the people who are the most successful, the people I have admired the most, are not necessarily those who are the most brilliant, or witty, or have mastered a particular discipline, but those who had the stamina to stay the course over a long period of time. . . . It's like the difference between the shooting star that flashes across the sky and is gone -- you're not even sure it was there -- and the North Star that is there every night, night after night."-Henry G. Cisneros in a commencement speech
3484) "An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."- John Gardner in a commencement speech
3485) "During the century just passed, we humans learned how to transplant hearts, fly spaceships, clone sheep and squeeze a library's worth of data into a single slender disk. But as world events reflect, we remain far from mastering the art of human relations. We have invented no technology that will guide us to the destinations that matter most. After two world wars, the Holocaust, multiple genocides and countless conflicts, we must ask how long it will be before we are able to rise above the national, racial and gender distinctions that divide us and embrace the common humanity that binds us. The answer depends not on the stars of some mysterious forces of history; it depends on the choices that you and I and all of us make."-Madeleine K. Albright in a commencement speech
3486) "How many of you remember your birthday? Can I just see your hands? Now what did your brain have to do for you to respond to that question? Give you an example of the sophistication of your brain: First of all the sound waves had to leave my lips, enter your auditory meatus, travel down to the tympanic membrane, set up a vibratory force, which traveled across the ossicles of your middle ear to the oval and round windows, setting up a vibratory force in the endolymph, which mechanically distorted the microcilia, converting mechanical energy to electrical energy, which traveled across the cochlear nerve to the cochlear nucleus to the pons-to-medullary juncture, from there to the superior olivary nucleus ascending bilaterally up the brain stem to the lateral lemniscus and the anterior colliculus and the medial geniculate nuclei across the thalamic radiations to the posterior temporal lobes, going through the frontal lobes, coming down the Anyway! You get the point. And that's the simplified version of what your brain had to do. It can do much more complex things than that and you barely have to think about it. So with a brain like that, why would anybody ever utter the words 'I can't?'"-Benjamin S. Carson in a commencement speech
3487) "You know what real power is? Real power is when you are doing exactly you are supposed to be doing the best it can be done. Authentic power. There's a surge, there's a kind of energy field that says, 'I'm in my groove. I'm in my groove.' And nobody has to tell you, 'You go girl,' because, you know, you're already gone."- Oprah Winfrey in a commencement speech
3488) "When nothing makes sense, I'll fight believing only in myself."-Heero Yuy
3489) "The god of death? Well, I guess it sounds better than a hero who commits mass murder."-Duo Maxwell
3490) "Wars take many lives away. Humans never forget the grief, but they also never stop the fighting. Streams of blood and tears are only an ornament for their destructive ritual."-Duo Maxwell
3491) "Those who are right have to be strong."-Chang Wufei
3492) "Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime and falling into at night."-Edna St. Vincent Millay
3493) "Silences make the real conversation between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts."-Margaret Lee Runbeck
3494) "Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued, is always just beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."-Nathianiel Hawthorne
3495) "so Jane accuses me of being an anti-Semite.I remind her that my ex-wife is Jewish, and Jane says, 'What does that prove? Every misogynist I know is married.'"-Melissa Bank, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
3496) "It occurred to me that the quiet in the suburbs had nothing to do with peace."-Melissa Bank, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
3497) "it was more like I was this human mirror walking down the road and all people could see when they looked in my direction was some reflection of themselves looking back because the main effect was nobody saw me myself, the kid, Chappie, Bone even, no one saw me except as a way to satisfy their desires or meet their needs, the nature of which sometimes they didn't even know about until I showed up on the scene"-Russell Banks, Rule of the Bone
3498) "It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives."
3499) "Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it."-Ralph Waldo Emerson
3500) "All our young lives we search for someone to love. We chose partners, change partners...all the while wondering of there's someone, somewhere who might be searching for us."-Kevin Arnold on "The Wonder Years"