Cancel My Appointments, Please

"You can plan a picnic and hope for a sunny day, but sometimes a sunny day just turns up and demands your immediate attention." 

A Casualty of Prejudice

"You cannot appeal to the self-interest of prejudiced people, for rarely does an awareness of one's true self-interest survive one's prejudice." 

Thoughts of a Godseeker

 "If there's one thing people of tolerance might usefully borrow from people of prejudice, it is their religious zeal."

The test, for me, of any religion is what is left of it when stripped of its theology.  Is there a core of human kindness that can be practiced?

As for my own religion and politics, I continue to look for a religion that will accept me as a heretic and a political party that will accept me as a dissenter.

Nostalgia

"Nostalgia is less a longing for a past we once lived than for a future we once dreamed of."

More Miscellany

 "Far from knowing history, you wonder if politicians today even suspect that anyone is taking notes."

"If the human race is good at anything, it is good at surviving people giving up on it." 

"A wake-up moment in one's intellectual life is realizing that no impartial third party has ever sided with you."

"There is nothing like really getting to know people to reduce your need for their approval."

Saving The World

 "I am not against people wanting to save the world, but I suspect that if the world is to be saved, it will be saved by people with a smaller objective."

"If I could save a life by enduring a pinprick, I would. But if I could save a billion lives by enduring a billion pinpricks, I would not. It is my duty to do what I reasonably can to help another, but it is not my duty to single-handedly save the world, for if it were, what would be your duty?"

Life Is...

 "Life is a collection of moments you might have appreciated more if you had only known they were moments."

"Life is a series of stages, each preparation for the one before."

"Life is a series of things you do for the first time and the last time, the difference being that you know when it's the first time."