"Philosopher is becoming God in the process called life."

“Be brave and upright that God may love thee; speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death; safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.”

“I feel like because black Cuban artists don't have the kind of pressure to thematize race in the way that African-American artists do, there's more space for them to do their art without having to discuss it in terms of racial identity.”

“Wealth I ask not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; All I seek, the heaven above And the road below me.”

“I have lived among negroes, all my life, and I am for this Government with slavery under the Constitution as it is. I am for the Government of my fathers with negroes. I am for it without negroes. Before I would see this Government destroyed I would send every negro back to Africa, disintegrated and blotted out of space”

Source : Speech in Indianapolis, Indiana, February 26, 1863.

“Marx was wrong. Religion is not the opiate of the people. Opium suggests something soporific, numbing, dulling. Too often religion has been an aphrodisiac for horror, a Benzedrine for bestiality. At its best it has lifted spirits and raised spires. At its worst it has turned entire civilizations into cemeteries.”

“Twenty aspirin, a little slit alongside the veins of the arm, maybe even a bad half hour standing on a roof: We've all had those. And somewhat more dangerous things, like putting a gun in your mouth. But you put it there, you taste it, it's cold and greasy, your finger is on the trigger, and you find that a whole world lies between this moment and the moment you've been planning, when you'll pull the trigger. That world defeats you. You put the gun back in the drawer. You'll have to find another way.”

Source : Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.17, Vintage

“Forget purpose. It’s okay to be happy without one. The quest for a single purpose has ruined many lives.”

“Meditation is a silent way of looking at resistance. You're not running away from it -- you're sitting with the resistance ... basically you're trying to follow the resistance. And I think that's very interesting.”