‘To me, an empty desk means an empty mind. If Archimedes had been neat, he’d never have let his bath overflow..’
- Josh Freed in defence of mess and clutter.

"One should take comfort in the fact that they live in an age richer in information availability than anything our ancestors could have imagined. I’ve often thought about how absolutely hard it is today to become a Renaissance Man, a jack of all trades, simply because of the level of complexity everything has reached. Knowing mostly everything there was to know about astronomy, for instance, would have taken a couple weeks to learn. That’s because there wasn’t too much to learn from. Other subjects would be much the same way.

That infinite abyss of data should be looked at as potentially the most beautiful thing man has ever created. Learning how to swim in that sea is more important than trying to swallow it in. Mastering Google is more important than memorizing an encyclopedia. Knowing where to find ever-changing answers is more important than mindless regurgitation."
- Unknown


"From 1998 to 2001, the USA, the UK, and France earned more income from arms sales to developing countries than they gave in aid.

The arms industry is unlike any other. It operates without regulation. It suffers from widespread corruption and bribes. And it makes its profits on the back of machines designed to kill and maim human beings.

So who profits most from this murderous trade? The five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the USA, UK, France, Russia, and China. Together, they are responsible for eighty eight per cent of reported conventional arms exports.

"We can’t have it both ways. We can’t be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of arms.” Former US President Jimmy Carter, presidential campaign, 1976"
-From ControlArms.org


“As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes" When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy.”
- Abraham Lincoln in a letter to Joshua Speed, 1855


There’s nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is being superior to your previous self.
- James Raia


“The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?’ and my answer must at once be, ‘It is no use.’ There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It’s no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.”
- George Leigh Mallory, 1922


What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children - not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women - not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.”
– JFK


"It is as if they were telling you, the people of America: "Hold to account those who have caused us to be killed, and happy is he who learns from others' mistakes."
- Osama bin Laden on what Americans should have learned from the deaths of people on 9/11


"An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure."


“The Indians and Metis of the Northwest will be held down with a firm hand till the West is overrun and controlled by white settlers.”
- John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada


“If you can imagine it, you can create it. If you can dream it, you can become it.”
- William Arthur Ward