Saying you believe in something is the ultimate act of conviction. There is no room for half-truths, no need to be "half-sick of shadows," as Tennyson might say. When you can stand up and say "I believe in this," there is no equivocation, no later redaction of "well, that's not exactly what I meant." It's what William S. Burroughs referred to as Naked Lunch... that moment with your food on your fork right in front of your face, when there's no turning back, no polite dismissal from the table.
I believe in the power of ideas. I believe in integrity and virtue; justice, equality and liberty. I believe in truth, goodness, and beauty. I believe in the ability of a person to be better than his or herself. I believe in the ability of people to do good things in the face of bad situations. I believe in making an investment in children, in making an investment in the earth, in making an investment in the arts. I believe in the incomprehensible magnificence of the universe. I believe you should love your God and love your neighbor. I believe the first emotion you should feel each day is thankfulness for being alive; afterwards, your first though should be of what you can do to make the day better for someone else. I believe we live in a society that focuses more on greed than generosity, and I believe that we can change that focus. I believe that I have not only flaws but also skills, and that I can, with enough effort, use my skills to overcome my flaws.
My Philosophy By Proxy
Before we continue, yes, I did notice almost all of my quotes are from dead white men. As I was only 3 credit hours away from a Women's Studies minor in college, I know this says something deeply troubling about me. Just let me put this out there in advance... I fill my pockets with rocks in honor of Virginia Woolf every March 28th... I will protest any literary anthology that does not include Charlotte Smith... Clarissa is possibly one of the most tortured characters in literary history... I am not a misogynist :)Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.-- C.G. Jung
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has... The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today. We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet. -- Margaret Mead, a medley of quotations
When I discover who I am, I'll be free. -- Ralph Ellison
What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?-- Jesus
Do you know what you are if you read poetry and don't know what the words mean? DISGUSTING! -- Cynthia Freeman
I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy. When my students and I discover uncharted territory to explore, when the pathway out of a thicket opens up before us, when our experience is illuminated by the lightning-life of the mind--then teaching is the finest work I know. But at other moments, the classroom is so lifeless or painful or confused--and I am so powerless to do anything about it--that my claim to be a teacher seems a transparent sham. Then the enemy is everywhere: in those students from some alien planet, in that subject I thought I knew, and in the personal pathology that keeps me earning my living this way. What a fool I was to imagine that I had mastered this occult art! ... When you love your work that much--and many teachers do--the only way to get out of trouble is to go deeper in. We must enter, not evade, the tangles of teaching so we can understand them better and negotiate them with more grace, not only to guard our own spirits, but also to serve our students well. -- Parker Palmer, from The Courage to Teach
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. --Thomas Jefferson
You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your khakis. --Tyler Durden
Like a painter paints, or a sculptor sculpts,
a preacher preaches, and a teacher teaches.
This is what we do.
Experts in the art of explanation:
I know the difference between questions
to answer and questions to ask.
That's an excellent question.
What do you think?
--Taylor Mali, "The Miracle Workers"
Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. -- William Faulkner
After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains. --Walt Whitman
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure, and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. -- Rainer Maria Rilke (Stephen Mitchell translation... yes, the translator is important in this case...)
I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave... Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of human purposes? ... A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.... The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature... We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about. -- Joseph Campbell... a medley of quotations
It is today we must create the world of the future.
--Eleanor Roosevelt
[The purpose of the government of the United States is to] establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselfs and our Posterity. --The Constitution of the United States of America
