Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this: That you are dreadfully like other people. – James Russell Lowell, “Democracy Address,” Birmingham, England, 6 October 1884

The mandate I have received and for which I will speak with heart and head to implement over the next seven years had its four pillars – an inclusive citizenship, equality and participation and respect in a creative society creating an excellence in everything we Irish do. – Michael D. Higgins

While there is a lower class I am in it, while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. – Eugene V. Debs, Cleveland, 1917

It is well to know something of the manners of various peoples, in order more sanely to judge our own, and that we do not think that everything against our modes is ridiculous, and against reason, as those who have seen nothing are accustomed to think. РRen̩ Descartes, Discourse on the Method, 1637 (translated)