In the last analysis we must be judged by what we do and not by what we believe. We are as we behave — with a very small margin of credit for our unmanifested vision of how we might behave if we could take the trouble. – Geoffrey L. Rudd, The British Vegetarian, September/October 1962
Most of us are aware of and pretend to detest the barefaced instances of that hypocrisy by which men deceive others, but few of us are upon our guard or see that more fatal hypocrisy by which we deceive and over-reach our own hearts. – Laurence Sterne, 1760
No one is so completely disenchanted with the world, or knows it so thoroughly, or is so utterly disgusted with it, that when it begins to smile upon him he does not become partially reconciled to it. – Giacomo Leopardi
The arc of American history almost inevitably moves toward freedom. Whether its Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, the expansion of womens rights or, now, gay rights, I think there is an almost-inevitable march toward greater civil liberties. – James McGreevey
