Henry Rollins // "Be like the moon... The moon has been around a long time and has never tried to rip anyone off. The moon does not care who you want to touch or what color you are. The moon treats everyone the same... Be like the moon. When others insult or belittle in an attempt to elevate themselves, the moon sits passively and watches, never lowering itself to anything that weak. The moon is beautiful and bright... The moon never shoves clouds out of its way so it can be seen. The moon needs not fame or money to be powerful. The moon never asks you to go to war to defend it. Be like the moon."
Zaha Hadid // "You have to really believe not only in yourself; you have to believe that the world is actually worth your sacrifices."
Anthony Bourdain // If I'm an advocate for anything, it's to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move."
Sir Ian McKellen // "If you want to understand human beings, what you have to understand is that we all act, we all play parts. Like…when you got up this morning you decided what you would wear – you decided not to put a suit on. But if you’d been going to an important reception you would have changed your costume... We are used to the idea of changing our clothes according to what we are doing. And we change our language. You might swear in one situation but never in another. You’re constantly presenting yourself in a way animals don’t do. A dog is always a dog. That’s why he’s so funny when you put him in different situations, he’s always himself. Human beings adapt."
Margaret Mead // "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Gloria Steinem (& Dorothy Pitman Hughes) // "Don't think about making women fit the world...think about making the world fit women."
Maya Angelou // "Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination, full of hope."
Abraham Lincoln // (letter to son's teacher) "Respected teacher, my son will have to learn that all men are not just, all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for every selfish politician, there is a dedicated leader... It will take time, I know; but teach him, if you can...to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong. Teach him to be gentle with gentle people and tough with the tough... Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders; but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob…and to stand and fight if he thinks he is right. Treat him gently; but do not coddle him because only the test of fire makes fine steel... Teach him to always have sublime faith in himself because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind. This is a big order; but see what you can do. He is such a fine little fellow, my son."
Salvador Dali // "Every one of my paintings, everybody laughed...but after 12 years, every scientific people recognize that every one of these paintings is a real prophecy. In the moment of painting my watches, a rigid object for everybody, I myself paint these watches very soft...everybody laughed. The last development of nuclear physics proved a new conception that space and time is completely flexible."
Jim Carrey // "I can tell you that the effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is."
Martin Luther King Jr. // "Nonviolent resistance…avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him...people of the world must not succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe...someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives."
Martin Luther King Jr. // "There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of people in that society who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that that have nothing to lose. People who have stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it."
