Those who seek consolation in existing churches often pay for their peace of mind with a tacit agreement to ignore a great deal of what is known about the way the world works.
All I ask is this: Do something. Try something. Speaking out, showing up, writing a letter, a check, a strongly worded e-mail. Pick a cause – there are few unworthy ones. And nudge yourself past the brink of tacit support to action. Once a month, once a year, or just once...Even just learning enough about a subject so you can speak against an opponent eloquently makes you an unusual personage. Start with that. Any one of you would have cried out, would have intervened, had you been in that crowd in Bashiqa. Well thanks to digital technology, you’re all in it now.
It is the rare fortuene of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.
I am my nearest neighbour.
There can never be a complete confidence in a power which is excessive.
That cannot be safe which is not honourable.
Keen at the start, but careless at the end.
No hatred is so bitter as that of near relations.
It is found by experience that admirable laws and right precedents among the good have their origin in the misdeeds of others.
In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.