Quotes

You will be no swimmer till you can place some confidence in the power of the water to support you. —Benjamin Franklin (via 10 Mile Swim)

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”  —Woodrow Wilson (via pangeaseed)

“Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.” — Oliver Sacks, quoted by Michiko Kakutani, in the NYT today (via Steve Silberman)

“It’s extremely dangerous to follow the advice of successful people. Those successful people often don’t even know why they are successful. Luck may have been part of it. And even if they did know, how do you know their recipe for success is applicable to you?” — Wise words from the founder of Finni

“Few men have souls so dead that they will not bother to look up when they hear the barking of wild Geese.” –Roger Tory Peterson

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning,” said Mark Twain. An editor’s job, at its best, is about turning lightning bugs into lightning.

“I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy […]

Frank Bidart: What to make, how to make, what does making mean in our lives? What do we make, why do make, when are we making? How important is making? What is the life of a maker, what is the life of an artist, what’s left when you’re not making anything? From Bidart’s amazing 2006 […]

This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, argue, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh

“I just told my son that when I was a kid I had to leave home to play video games, to watch movies, to send mail, to see friends….” —Martin Varsavsky on Twitter

“News is something someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising.” —Lord Northcliffe By that measure, there are mighty few true news reporters in tech publishing right now. Declan McCullough, certainly; Kim Zetter‘s coverage of e-voting machines also qualifies. Who else is uncovering new

“When man invented the bicycle, he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that