Words to live by

I picked this up as a small child from my Great Grandmother Van, a matriarch of the family. She lused to collect all sorts of quotes and sayings. I guess in someways, I do it as well to preserve her memory.
Anyways these are a few that I hold dear. The first one I created myself.

The key to any successful relationship is communication. There doen't have to be love, trust or respect... If there is communication the rest will follow.

“Educated” people never had to pass any tests evaluating their common sense.

"Our lives begin to end, the day we become silent about things that matter."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one's self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all."
~ Michael Rivero

You don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old
because you stopped laughing.

When you see uncaring people in high places, everybody should be mad as hell. If you lessen your anger at the structures of power, you lower your love for the victims of power.

To the person elected to office: When you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution.
You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.

*Purity*Purity is light.We forget purity too much. We make compromises with our hygiene in the name of expediency. We allow our mountains and seashores to be polluted for the sake of the marketplace. We allow our minds to be sullied with frivolous entertainment. War is thought to be a viable option, principle is considered a negotiable quality, our children are victimized by strangers, and obscenity is considered a valid subject for art. Where is the purity in our lives? We marry. We divorce. We don't care whom we hurt in life. We think loyalty is a charming but meaningless virtue. We sacrifice the values of our youth to purchase the glory of our later years. Where is the purity in our lives? We think that if we can triumph in one golden moment, that will dissolve all the other filth we preoccupy ourselves with. We uphold the greatness of athletes who want to have that one moment of triumph. We laud the battlefield hero as the redeemer of our guilt over the horror of war. We have fostered madmen who think that shooting a gun, hunting down animals, committing suicide, or slashing prostitutes in the street is their means of purity. Where is the purity in our lives? Seek purity. It may not be easy. It may not be common. But it is the one state that we can attain that is without compromise.