Orts #811

And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two makes four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all of the world there is no other child exactly like you. In the millions of years that have passed there has never been another child like you. And look at your body — what a wonder it is! Your legs, your arms, your cunning fingers, the way you move! You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must cherish one another. You must work — we all must work — to make this world worthy of its children.
     — Pablo Casals (1876-1973) in his autobiography, Joys and Sorrows

There is no week nor day when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their supreme confidence in themselves, and lose their roughness and spirit of defiance…. Tyranny may always enter, there is no charm, no bar against it—the only bar against it is a large resolute breed of men [and women].
     — Walt Whitman, in the Brooklyn Eagle. about 1848

The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.
     — Lord Edward Grey, British foreign secretary, August, 1914

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a fascinating essay on the scarcity of rational thought: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds