"I feel like in my life, when I've gone through during some traumatic things, I go so inward and I shut the world out and I become - I don't want to use the word selfish because it's hard circumstances, but when I go through hard stuff, it's difficult for me to communicate with other people, let alone stand up for other people's rights."

“Daily and hourly, the politician inwardly has to overcome a quite trivial and all-too-human enemy: a quite vulgar vanity.”

“Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.”

Source : Wendell Phillips (1864). “Speeches, Lectures, and Letters”, p.421

“It’s a similar feeling from being in a community of punk rockers as a teenager and the feeling I still get today when I’m in a community of skeptical scientists. The idea with both is that you challenge authority, you challenge the dogma. You challenge the doctrine in order to make progress. The thrill of science is the process. It’s a social process. It’s a process of collective discovery. It’s debate, it’s experimentation and it’s verification of claims that might be false. It’s the greatest foundation for a society.”

“Truly great people emit a light that warms the hearts of those around them. When that light has been put out, a heavy shadow of despair descends.”

Source : Banana Yoshimoto, Megan Backus (1979). “Three Plays”, p.55, Grove Press

“It is the job of the market to turn the base material of our emotions into gold.”

“I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed.”

Source : Ralph Ellison (2010). “Invisible Man”, p.40, Vintage

“After your first job, is anyone asking you what your GPA was? No, they don't care. They ask you: Are you a good leader? Do people follow you? Do you have integrity? Are you innovative? Do you solve problems? Somebody's got to do that homework and redesign the educational system so that it can actually train people to be successful in life”

“We have a need to be religious, we need to worship, we need to build totems and shrines and icons, but nobody's sure in honor of what.”