Periodically I go through a book of quotes that I’ve collected over the years. Different quotes strike me at different times. These are some of the ones that hit me today. Norman Cousins: “Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of conscience, thus helping to bring the collective conscience to life.” Norman Cousins: "People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams." Francis Moore Lappe: "Wisdom is being able to analyze precisely where one’s gifts intersect in a very precise way with what the world needs." Teillard de Chardin: "Purity does not lie in separation from but in deeper penetration into the universe." Thomas Merton: "I will never be able to find myself if I isolate myself from the rest of mankind as if I were a different kind of being." Rumi from These Branching Moment s: "Journeys bring power and love back into you. If you can’t go somewhere, move in the passageways of the self. They are like shafts of light, always changing, and you change when you explore them." Reinhold Niebuhr: "The temper with which we fight our political battles is often more important than the results of these battles." Bill Moyers: "Democracy is a conversation, and how we talk to one another is as important as what we talk about and what conclusions we reach." William Stafford: "Democracy is a situation in which we don’t try to overwhelm each other. We value what each other has to give." Gandhi: "We must not kill our enemies, but kill their desire to kill." an anonymous poem from ancient Maharashtra state - 2000 years ago. Lone buck in the clearing nearby doe eyes him with such longing that there in the trees the hunter seeing his own girl l ets the bow drop Thomas Merton: "There is no way to tell people they are all walking around shining like the sun." Einstein: "The only real time is that of the observer who carries with him his own time and space."