Romania had been under communist rule since 1945, but it was after Ceausescu came to power in 1965 that life really began to deteriorate. . . . Then, one night in the late 1980s, a group of men dressed as street sweepers draped the statue of Lenin in Bucharest with big truck tires and set them on fire. It was a bold and daring act in a country where, it was said, for every Romanian on the street there were two secret police officers. The next morning traffic was detoured while workers from nearby factories were brought in to clean the statue with razor blades. That day I realized that change was possible. —Florin Ion Firimita More about this quote Tags: history power change communism daring Romania Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
This increasingly intelligent, fast-moving civilization needs to be applying some of its intelligence to things that change slowly. . . . If we are constantly tending to the immediate, day-to-day problems, we'll lose that sense of the long term, and then we could be really sorry. —Stewart Brand More about this quote Tags: intelligence time perception perspective change civilization Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
To everyone's surprise, wildlife abounds in the deserted environs of the doomed [Chernobyl] nuclear plant. Elk, wild pigs, wolves, and rabbits all seem to be flourishing. These animals have somehow learned to cope with the high levels of radiation. Who knows, perhaps there are mutations: A pig that can climb. A rabbit with a prehensile tail. An elk with a unicorn's horn. Cells are quick-change artists. Life loves life. Humans may end, but the world won't. —Sybil Smith More about this quote Tags: life danger nature disaster animals wildlife nuclear power mutation Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
They told me that her blood was too thick for her heart to pump, and I wondered how it was that someone stayed alive so long after nothing's left. I had seen bugs crushed and gone so quickly. I couldn't decide if life was fragile or tenacious beyond belief. —Patricia Bralley More about this quote Tags: life health death blood fragility Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
As lines add history to a face, cracks only improve the value of a heart — take it from me, I've got a heart cracked like crystal, and when you hold it up to the light it's not without class. —John Rosenthal More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I used to say, watching two elderly women crossing the street in flowered hats, holding each other's arms, "Look at those cute old ladies." I didn't mind the stereotypes that pepper movies and television shows. Now old people are no longer cute or mean or silly or wise to me. They are people, in all their broken fullness. Despite the glitches in faculties and functioning, anyone who's lived that long has learned something the rest of us don't know. —Tarn Wilson More about this quote Tags: humanity old age fullness Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I was seventy-six in April, and the reason for my relative longevity is that I never take any legal drugs — except a few months ago. I was at a party, and I took an aspirin. I didn't even have a headache. I just gave in to peer pressure. —Paul Krassner More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
How can one accept — let alone enjoy — aging in a culture where God is twenty-five; where advertisements are filled with twenty-somethings in halter tops and tight t-shirts, unless the ad is for a drug to treat incontinence, high blood pressure, or elevated cholesterol? What about the wisdom of age? What about endurance? What about the beauty of a face etched by years that were not always easy? —Genie Zeiger More about this quote Tags: God easy wisdom acceptance beauty aging age youth incontinence Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Death is not the greatest fear. Neither is loss. Living is. —Joel Peckham More about this quote Tags: fear living death loss Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I can't count the number of times I have officially assembled the equipment to take my life: a knife, a handgun, a plastic bag, a bottle of codeine and a fifth of vodka. My motivations are never quite clear: perception of failure, futility, a sense of irremediable isolation, mtv — nothing everyone else hasn't suffered through. Yet I tend to magnify my gloomy outlook into a drive-in picture of the end of the world. I can't seem to remember that despair is a temporary state, a dark storm along the highway; that if I can just stick it out, keep the wipers going and my foot on the gas, I will make it through to the other side. —Poe Ballantine More about this quote Tags: failure despair suicide isolation futility temporary Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Ever since I was a little kid, I've had trouble with transitions. I don't mean the usual life transitions of birth, death, divorce, moving — everyone has trouble with those. No, I mean the little transitions, like the one between waking up and putting my feet on the floor. Or between turning off the car and going into the house. Or between getting out of the shower and getting dressed. You can see why life has been very, very hard for me. —Alison Luterman More about this quote Tags: life death birth divorce transitions moving Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Will is the means by which we overcome the problems that life or genes have handed us. Without it, there is no true character. —Jacob Needleman More about this quote Tags: life character will problems overcoming Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Marriage is a perilous and fearful effort, it seems to me. . . . It creates pain that it is the only cure for. It is the only comfort for its hardships. . . . Though we had our troubles, we had them in a true perspective. The universe, as we could see any night, is unimaginably large, and mostly empty, and mostly dark. We knew we needed to be together more than we needed to be apart. —Wendell Berry More about this quote Tags: fear perspective pain marriage comfort Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
There is no democracy in any love relation: only mercy. —Gillian Rose More about this quote Tags: love relationships democracy mercy Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I can see from your utter misery, from your eagerness to misunderstand each other, and from your thoroughly bad temper that this is the real thing. —Peter Ustinov More about this quote Tags: misery eagerness temper Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email