James Branch Cabell, 1926

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "The First Circle"

What is the most precious thing in the world? Not to participate in injustices. They are stronger than you. They have existed in the past and they will exist in the future. But let them not come about through you.

Loren Eiseley, "The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature"

The need is not really for more brains, the need is now for a gentler, a more tolerant people than those who won for us against the ice, the tiger and the bear. The hand that hefted the ax, out of some old blind allegiance to the past fondles the machine gun as lovingly. It is a habit man will have to break to survive, but the roots go very deep.

John Steinbeck, "East of Eden"

Timshel! [Hebrew]

(Thou mayest!)

Julio Iglesias, "La vida sigue igual"

Unos que nacen otros moriran
unos que rien otros lloraran
aguas sin cauces, rios y mar
penas y glorias, guerras y paz.

Siempre hay por que vivir por que luchar
siempre hay por quien sufrir y a quien amar.
Al final las obras quedan las gentes se van
otros que vienen las continuaran
la vida sigue igual.

Pocos amigos que son de verdad
cuantos te halagan si triunfando estas
y si fracasas bien comprenderas
los buenos quedan los demás se van.

Siempre hay por que vivir por que luchar
siempre hay por quien sufrir y a quien amar.
Al final las obras quedan las gentes se van
otras que vienen las continuaran
la vida sigue igual.

(Some are born others will die
some laugh others will cry
water without channels, rivers and sea
hardships and glory, wars and peace.

There is always a reason to live a reason to fight
there is always someone to suffer for and someone to love.
In the end the works remain the people go away
others that come will continue them
life goes on the same way.

Only a few friends are true
how they praise you when you are successful
and if you fail you will understand well
that the good remain the rest go away.

There is always a reason to live a reason to fight
there is always someone to suffer for and someone to love.
In the end the works remain the people go away
others that come will continue them
life goes on the same way.)

Loren Eiseley

Perhaps a creature of so much ingenuity and deep memory is almost bound to grow alienated from his world, his fellows, and the objects around him. He suffers from a nostalgia for which there is no remedy upon earth except as it is to be found in the enlightenment of the spirit - some ability to have a perceptive rather than an exploitive relationship with his fellow creatures.

Václav Havel (then President of Czechoslovakia, addressing the US Congress), 1990

As long as people are people, democracy in the full sense of the word will always be no more than an ideal. One may approach it as one would a horizon, in ways that may be better or worse, but it can never be fully attained.

In this sense you, too, are merely approaching democracy. You have thousands of problems of all kinds, as other countries do. But you have one great advantage: You have been approaching democracy uninterrupted for more than 200 years.