"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." ~Albert Einstein, in a letter to his son Eduard

"This is the mythical burrito microwaved by God, which is so hot, God himself cannot eat it."
~Rob Harvilla, LA Weekly, on the new Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy

"How can I accept a limited definable self when I feel, in me, all possibilities?" ~Anais Nin, The Diary of Anais Nin

"When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself." ~Tecumseh Shawnee Chief

"I used to be a hopeless romantic. I am still a hopeless romantic. I used to believe that love was the highest value. I still believe that love is the highest value. I don't expect to be happy. I don't imagine that I will find love, whatever that means, or that if I do find it, it will make me happy. I don't think of love as the answer or the solution. I think of love as a force of nature -- as strong as the sun, as necessary, as impersonal, as gigantic, as impossible, as scorching as it is warming, as drought-making as it is life-giving. And when it burns out, the planet dies."
~Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
~Douglas Adams

"Get in touch with what you really want. What does awakening mean for you? Do you want it because it sounds good? Then you've borrowed someone else's idea of it. What is it that's intrinsic to you? What's been important to you your whole life? If you touch upon that, you are in touch with a force that no teacher or teaching could ever give you. Your are quite on your own in finding it. No one can tell you what that is. Once you feel it, once you're clear on it, everything else will unfold from there. If you need a teacher, you'll find one. If you need a teaching, you'll bump into it, probably in the most unexpected way." ~Adyashanti, The Sun, Issue 384

"What motivates us when we're not pushing or grasping, not relying on conditioned concepts of right and wrong, good and bad? Is there something else that can move us? And what is that?" ~Adyashanti, The Sun, Issue 384

"Fortune favors the brave." ~Virgil, Aeneid

"No jealousy. Just support for Everyone's trip." ~Ben Pringle

"Memories lose their nerve endings

That I can attest to

(I also have lost great things)

And assure you

This tragedy will one day go limp

Staggering against a hopeful force

called sanity (Bless its resilience! That jokester, that

snow leopard!)

Falling at its feet

As a soupy beige matter

That you will eventually come to name,

a phase

(Hallelujah)"

~Jamie Masters

"In the Baemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman, and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the person... has done in his lifetime. All his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths, and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. The tribal ceremony often lasts several days. At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe." ~Alice Walker

"I tried to make a long island iced tea last night... I failed." ~Jeremy Burgan

"We forget how painful it is to be between selves; how all of us, always, are between selves, and that it is in that desolate gap that everything true and useful is happening. The trick for the writer -- and the teacher, and the person-in-the-making -- is to stay aware of the gap and to write from, to teach from, to be from the other side, the better side."
~Heather Sellers, in The Sun, Issue 384

"This is what matters to me: No matter what, I will live in a way that honors what people create." ~Mark Doty

"Story by Jung of a conversation with a chief of the Pueblo Indians: Jung asked the chief's opinion of the white man and was told that it was not a high one. White people, said Ochwiay Biano, seem always upset, always restlessly looking for something, with the result that their faces are covered with wrinkles. He added that white men must be crazy because they think with their heads, and it is well-known that only crazy people do that. Jung asked in surprise how the Indian thought, to which Ochwiay Biano replied that naturally he thought with his heart." ~Laurens van der Post

"You cannot contribute anything to the ideal condition of mind and heart known as brotherhood, however much you preach, posture, or agree, unless you live it." ~Faith Baldwin

"I walked with a friend to the newsstand the other night, and he bought a paper, thanking the owner politely. The owner, however, did not even acknowledge it. "A sullen fellow, isn't he?" I commented as we walked away. "Oh, he's that way every night," shrugged my friend. "Then why do you continue being so polite to him?" I asked, and my friend replied, "Why should I let him determine how I'm going to act?" ~Sidney J. Harris

"When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem." ~Edward Abbey

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do." ~Steve Jobs

"You know of the disease called "sleeping sickness." There also exists a sleeping sickness of the soul. Its most dangerous aspect is that one is unaware of its coming. That is why you have to be careful. As soon as you notice the slightest sign of indifference, the moment you become aware of the loss of a certain seriousness, of longing, of enthusiasm and zest, take it as a warning. Your soul suffers if you live superficially."
~Albert Schweitzer

"Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn't burn up any fossil fuel, doesn't pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance." ~Margaret Mead

"If at first an idea isn't absurd, there is no hope for it."
~Albert Einstein

"The skeptics can go on repeating ad nauseam that an Obama presidency will change nothing about American hyperpower and the reprobation it elicits. Anti-Americanism will not disappear as though by magic, but its life will get harder. It will have to revise its arguments. Planetary shock wave? Another, geopolitical New Deal? One thing is sure — which places a heavy, metahistorical responsibility on the new President's shoulders: never will an American election have excited in the rest of the world a hope at once so crazy and so reasoned."
~Bernard-Henri Lévy, from The World's View of Obama's Win (thanks Sara)

"So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other... In this country, we rise or fall as one nation — as one people." ~Barack Obama, in his Victory Speech

"I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and be an American!"
~jG Francis, after Barack Obama's victory speech

"I'm so proud of America!" ~Heidi Fikstad, said over and over again after learning Barack Obama is the next U.S. President

"Now I have a reason to become a U.S. citizen."
~Rosalee Toews (aka Mom), a Canadian citizen who has lived in the United States for 50 years.

"AMERICA IS COOL AGAIN!!" ~Sara Kaye Larson, via text
(Sara has spent the last few months working her tookus off for Barack. Many many thanks Sara, we are so proud of you!)

"For that is the true genius of America — that America can change." ~President-elect Barack Obama

"Oh, let America be America again --/ The land that never has been yet --/ And yet must be." ~Langston Hughes

"In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?" ~Barack Obama
...
"Hope. I hope!" ~Beth Höeckel

"My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success."
~Barack Obama

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." ~Barack Obama