It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.
-- Bertrand Russell, Principles of Social Reconstruction, 1917
Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.
-- G.K. Chesterton
Upon the sacredness of property civilization itself depends - the right of the laborer to his hundred dollars in the savings bank, and equally the legal right of the millionaire to his millions.
-- Andrew Carnegie
Beware of all enterprises that require a new set of clothes.
-- Henry David Thoreau
Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
-- Henry David Thoreau
Fear is the foundation of most governments.
-- John Adams
Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.
-- John Adams
A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.
-- John Adams
A people free to choose will always choose peace.
-- Ronald Reagan
Facts are stubborn things.
-- Ronald Reagan
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
-- Abraham Lincoln
The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.
-- Albert Einstein
I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
-- Will Rogers
A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
America is another name for opportunity.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant;
they too have their story.
[...]
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career
however humble;
it is a real possession in the
changing fortunes of time.
-- Desiderata by Max Ehrmann
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
-- Desiderata
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
-- Genesis 2:15
This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
[...] to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
-- Chief Seattle, Chief of the Suquamish Indians
Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.
-- Henry David Thoreau
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
-- Henry David Thoreau
----------- Musical Interlude: from some sage philosophers.
I, Me, Mine -- The Beatles, with lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/...
Across The Universe -- The Beatles, with lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/...
the sanskrit translation
Us and Them -- Pink Floyd, with lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/...
Eclipse -- Pink Floyd, with lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/...
-----------
Our life is frittered away by detail...
Simplify, simplify, simplify! ...
Simplicity of life and elevation of purpose.
-- Henry David Thoreau
Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
-- Henry David Thoreau
-----------
Peace; ... and Opportunity; ... and the pursuit achievement of Happiness.
Now.
In our life times.
Imagine it. Then Make it happen.
( ... and take the time to plant a garden -- or two.
that's assuming you have the means and opportunity, to do so. )
... don't forget to water them.