May we look upon our treasures, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these, our possessions.

John Woolman
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Be Here Now

In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.

Poverty, slavery and apartheid

“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity; it is an act of justice.
Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it
can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes
it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation.
Let your greatness blossom.” Nelson Mandela
    Quoted at afsc.org

Power Concedes Nothing

"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation
are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.
They want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one;
or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle.
Power concedes nothing without demand.
It never has, and it never will."

-- Frederick Douglass

The Ultimate Weakness of Violence

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate…Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.