Quote of the Day (Lord Bertrand Russell, on the Three Great Passions of His Life)

“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.” — British philosopher, mathematician, social critic, and Nobel Literature laureate Lord Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1956)

Quote of the Day (Susan Sontag, on Compassion, ‘An Unstable Emotion’)

“Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question of what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. If one feels that there is nothing 'we' can do—but who is that 'we'?—and nothing 'they' can do either—and who are 'they'—then one starts to get bored, cynical, apathetic.” — American critic, novelist, filmmaker, philosopher, teacher, and political activist Susan Sontag (1933-2004), Regarding the Pain of Others (2002)

Quote of the Day (Rebecca Solnit, on Activists’ Anger and Love)

 

“Most great activists—from Ida B. Wells to Dolores Huerta to Harvey Milk to Bill McKibben—are motivated by love, first of all. If they are angry, they are angry at what harms the people and phenomena they love, but their urges are primarily protective, not vengeful. Love is essential; anger is perhaps optional.” — Writer, historian and activist Rebecca Solnit, “All the Rage,” The New Republic, October 2018

The image accompanying this post, showing Rebecca Solnit, was taken Sept. 10, 2010, by Charles Kremenak.

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Those Who Refuse to Take Part in Government)

"The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men." —American essayist, poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Eloquence,” in Society and Solitude (1870)

Quote of the Day (Alice Walker, on Making Holy the Sabbath)

“Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.” —American novelist, short-story writer, poet and social activist Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983) 

(Photo of Alice Walker, reading and talking about “Why War is Never a Good Idea” and “There’s a Flower at the End of My Nose Smelling Me,” taken Oct. 1, 2007, by Virginia DeBolt.)

 

Quote of the Day (Kate Otto, on ‘Making a Positive Difference in the World’)

“Unlike ever before in history, you and I can make a positive difference in the world, whether that world is overseas or our own backyard. Our compassion and thoughtfulness are no longer geographically constrained to the people immediately in our daily interactions.”— Kate Otto, Everyday Ambassador: Make a Difference by Connecting in a Disconnected World (2015)

Quote of the Day (Horace Traubel, on Building Fires)

“I build no fires to burn anybody up. I only build fires to light up the way.”—Horace Traubel (1858-1919), journalist, poet, and “Walt Whitman’s Boswell,” quoted in Modern American Poetry (1921), edited by Louis Untermeyer