All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each
event -- in the living act, the undoubted deed -- there, some unknown
but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features
from behind the unreasoning mask.
-Herman Melville,
novelist and poet (1819-1891)

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But
today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
-Khalil Gibran,
mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

Every one of us is precious in the cosmic perspective. If a human
disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you
will not find another.
-Carl Sagan,
astronomer and writer (1934-1996)

In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.
-Robert Green Ingersoll,
lawyer and orator (1833-1899)

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly
in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that
is not there.
-Eric Hoffer,
philosopher and author (1902-1983)

Twin Mystery.

To many people artists seem
undisciplined and lawless.
Such laziness, with such great gifts,
seems little short of crime.

One mystery is how they make
the things they make so flawless;
another, what they're doing with
their energy and time.

-Piet Hein,
poet and scientist (1905-1996)

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for
reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
-Albert Einstein,
physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or
measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.

-- Donald A. Adams

"The time is always right to do what is right." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

To aim at the best and to remain essentially ourselves is one and the
same thing.

-- Janet Erskine Stuart