All mankind exists at the sufferance of the biosphere, the biosphere at the sufferance of the sun, the sun at the sufferance of the galaxy, the galaxy at the sufferance of the cosmos.  All do as they please and take no note of mankind.  Whence, then, our insufferable arrogance?    

Ideas that profoundly change society take time.  It often requires a century to prepare the soil of minds and plant the seed.  It takes another for the seed to germinate, and emerge.  It takes a third for maturity and propagation, With luck we can expect to harvest in the fourth, and realize abundance in the fifth.  

How can we value truth if we have never known it, compassion if we have never received it, respect if we have never had it, and generosity if we have never experienced it? 

It is reason enough to belong to, believe in and practice a religion if it is comfortable and constructive to ones nature, but that is no reason at all to dogmatically proclaim it divine, assert it as truth, attempt to impose it on others, or decry other beliefs as false, mistaken or inferior.

First comes the dream, then the commitment, then the work, then the failure, then the learning, then the growth, then the persistence, and only then, the achievement,

Democracy is not liberty, justice or equity, though it may lead to such things if the minds and hearts of the people are so inclined. It can as easily lead to the exact opposite if the people are indifferent of have other values.

We are conditioned to believe that science is a precisely designed, incontrovertible means of knowing truth and reality, when it is no more than a useful way of looking at things.

Shareholder in any publicly traded corporations are not owners in any meaningful sense of the word.   They are speculators whose primary concern is whether others will pay more for their shares than they did.

Listening to Trump talk of draining the swamp in Washington is like listening to a rat talking about driving the mice out of the pantry.