[T]he Present is the living sum-total of the whole Past. – Thomas Carlyle, Characteristics

Jews have a special relationship to books, and the Haggadah has been translated more widely, and reprinted more often, than any other Jewish book. It is not a work of history or philosophy, not a prayer book, users manual, timeline, poem or palimpsest – and yet it is all these things. – Jonathan Safran Foer

When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world. – George Washington Carver

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done. – Louis D. Brandeis