Quotes

The past is never dead. It's not even past. — William Faulkner

[S]ustainable globalization still requires a stable, geopolitical power structure, which simply cannot be maintained without the active involvement of the United States. . . . The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist—McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the builder of the F-15. — Tom Friedman

One’s own death one only dies With the death of others one has to live — Mascha Kaléko

So the great Church of Christ came into being by ignoring the life of Christ…. The Fathers of the Church were good men, often saintly men, sometimes men who cared enough for Christ to die for him, but they did not trust him. They could not trust the safety of his church to his way of doing things. So they set out to make the church safe in their own way. Creeds and theologies protected it from individual vagaries; riches and power protected it against outside attacks. The church was safe. But one thing its ardent builders and defenders failed to see. Nothing that lives can be safe. Life means danger. The more the church was hedged about with confessions of faith and defended by the mighty of the earth, the feebler its life grew. — Edith Hamilton

God does not need a defense attorney. God needs a witness! — H. Richard Niebuhr

I’ll be glad for the neuroscientists to help us unravel the knotty cognitive connections seen among people of faith in the dissonant affinities for semi-automatic weapons alongside scriptural mandates to love enemies, for hoarding alongside the holy writ’s warnings about possessions. But for now, in this culture of ours that is so addicted to violence and so possessed by the prospects of concentrated wealth at the expense of the poor, we need this Psalm [74] and its hopeful imagery of ultimate victory for the forces of peace and justice. — Stan Dotson

While love is dangerous
let us walk bareheaded beside the Great River. Let us gather blossoms under fire. — Alice Walker

. . .whoso seeks the truth Shall find in no wise peace of heart. — St. Severinus (Boethius)

I want to go on record as saying that this is the stupidest, most irresponsible action a diplomatic mission like ours could get itself involved in, and that we've started a series of these things that will never end. — Deane Hinton, former Central Intelligence Agency operative in Syria, 1949, who was expelled from a “political action committee” group planning a coup against the Syrian government elected in 1947

Evangelistic appeal. If they come running like hogs after slop, it ain’t the gospel. — Theron Price