A Compact Mass

Men united by error constitute a compact mass.  The compactness of this mass is the evil of the world.  All the intellectual activity of humanity is directly destroying the cohesive power of deception. ...

Error is the force that welds men together; truth is communicated to men only by deeds of truth.  Only deeds of truth, by introducing light into the conscience of each individual, can dissolve the cohesion of error, and detach men one by one from the mass united together by the cohesion of error.

-- Lev Nikolayevitch Tolstoy (9 September 1828 - 20 November 1910), Russian writer, philosopher, and social activist, My Religion (1884), Ch. 12

There Is Nothing

Some day you will know for yourself that it is almost as true to say that one recovers from all things as that there is nothing which does not leave its scar.

-- Paul Charles Joseph Bourget (1852 - 1935), French novelist and critic, The Age for Love, Pierre Fauchery, as quoted by the character "Jules Labarthe"

Piecemeal

The only difference as compared with the old, outspoken slavery is this, that the worker of today seems to be free because he is not sold once for all, but piecemeal by the day, the week, the year, and because no one owner sells him to another, but he is forced to sell himself in this way instead, being the slave of no particular person, but of the whole property-holding class.

-- Friedrich Engels (1820 - 1895), 19th-century German philosopher, social scientist, and journalist, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 (1845) pp. 114-115

On Our Own Terms

The human desire to be understood is never quite sincere.  It is on our own terms that we desire to be understood, not on the terms of truth.

-- Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge (1900 - 1984), British author of novels, short stories, and children's books, The Child from the Sea (1970), Book 2, Ch. 1.5

Legal Wine

We have permitted those whom a law threatens with constitutional harm to bring pre-enforcement challenges to the law where the harm is less serious and the threat of enforcement less certain than the harm (and the threat) here. 

I recognize that Texas’s law delegates the State’s power to prevent abortions not to one person (such as a district attorney) or to a few persons (such as a group of government officials or private citizens) but to any person.  But I do not see why that fact should make a critical legal difference.  That delegation still threatens to invade a constitutional right, and the coming into effect of that delegation still threatens imminent harm.  Normally, where a legal right is "invaded," the law provides "a legal remedy by suit or action at law." Marbury v. Madison (1803).  It should prove possible to apply procedures adequate to that task here. ...  There may be other not-very-new procedural bottles that can also adequately hold what is, in essence, very old and very important legal wine: The ability to ask the Judiciary to protect an individual from the invasion of a constitutional right -- an invasion that threatens immediate and serious injury.

-- Justice Stephen Breyer, joining the dissent of Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor in Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson, 1 September 2021

Darn Quiet

It was so darn quiet you could hear your hair grow.

-- Robert Anson Heinlein (1907 - 1988), popular, influential, and controversial author of science fiction, Farmer in the Sky (1950) Chapter 13, "Johnny Appleseed" (p. 131)

Still Growing A Lot

The number of covid cases continues to climb rapidly.

8/29/2021: 155,575 new cases / day -- Now (7-day average)

8/15/2021: 130,709 new cases / day -- 2 weeks ago

8/01/2021:  79,904 new cases / day -- 4 weeks ago

7/18/2021:  32,287 new cases / day -- 6 weeks ago

6/22/2021:  11,299 new cases / day -- Nadir for cases

Deaths more than tripled over the last 4 weeks, and are up by a factor of 6 since their nadir, 8 weeks ago.  If only 98% of deaths are among the unvaccinated (it was 99.8% in June), then that's one death among the unvaccinated every 68 seconds (and one death among the vaccinated every 55 minutes 23 seconds).  I know which group I'd rather be in.

8/29/2021: 1290 new deaths / day -- Now (7-day average)

8/15/2021:  678 new deaths / day -- 2 weeks ago

8/01/2021:  363 new deaths / day -- 4 weeks ago

7/18/2021:  266 new deaths / day -- 6 weeks ago

7/05/2021:  213 new deaths / day -- Nadir for deaths

America's Longest War

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan late Monday, ending America's longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of more than 180 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, some barely older than the war.

-- "Last troops exit Afghanistan, ending America's longest war" by Robert Burns and Lolita C. Baldor, apnews.com, 30 August 2021

Truth In Checkmate

The "ideas" of the average man are not genuine ideas, nor is their possession culture.  An idea is a putting truth in checkmate.  Whoever wishes to have ideas must first prepare himself to desire truth and to accept the rules of the game imposed by it.  It is no use speaking of ideas when there is no acceptance of a higher authority to regulate them, a series of standards to which it is possible to appeal in a discussion.  

-- José Ortega y Gasset (1883 - 1955), Spanish philosopher, The Revolt of the Masses (1929) Chap. VIII: The Masses Intervene In Everything, And Why Their Intervention Is Solely By Violence

A Thread

You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism.  I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass.  A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn.

-- John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (26 August 1875 - 11 February 1940), Scottish novelist, poet, and politician, The Power-House (1916) Ch. 3 "Tells of a Midsummer Night"

I Want Better

People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it.  Better yet, build it.  Predicting the future is much too easy, anyway.  You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same.  To hell with more.  I want better.

-- Ray Douglas Bradbury (1920 - 2012), American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer, Beyond 1984: The People Machines (1979)

The Thing

Memory is the thing you forget with.

-- Stuart Alexander Chase (1926 -), American journalist and editor, Perspectives, 1966

Comirnaty

We are issuing Department of Health and Human Services U.S. License No. 2229 to BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH, Mainz, Germany, under the provisions of section 351(a) of the PHS Act controlling the manufacture and sale of biological products.  The license authorizes you to introduce or deliver for introduction into interstate commerce, those products for which your company has demonstrated compliance with establishment and product standards. 

Under this license, you are authorized to manufacture the product, COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA, which is indicated for active immunization to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 16 years of age and older. 

The review of this product was associated with the following National Clinical Trial (NCT) numbers: NCT04368728 and NCT04380701.

-- Approval Letter addressed to Pfizer-BioNTech from the US Food and Drug Administration authorizing the used of Comirnaty, the Pfizer covid vaccine, 23 August 2021

Intellectual Integrity

I mean by intellectual integrity the habit of deciding vexed questions in accordance with the evidence, or of leaving them undecided where the evidence is inconclusive.  This virtue, though it is underestimated by almost all adherents of any system of dogma, is to my mind of the very greatest social importance and far more likely to benefit the world than Christianity or any other system of organized beliefs.

-- Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872 - 1970), British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic, The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959 (1992), p. 598

Often Unintended

No wars are unintended or "accidental".  What is often unintended is the length and bloodiness of the war.

-- Geoffrey Norman Blainey, AC, FAHA, FASSA (1930 -), prominent Australian historian, academic, philanthropist, and commentator with a wide international audience, The Causes of War (1973)

New Variant

But even if you were such a libertarian extremist that you opposed vaccine requirements, there's no conceivable justification for banning private business from requiring vaccinations.  When Cruz insists, "No one should force anyone to take the vaccine -- including the federal government or an employer,” he is trampling on property rights and freedom of association, principles a small-government conservative like Cruz usually defends fanatically.  Suppose, for instance, you want to enjoy a cruise with the peace of mind that everybody onboard has gotten a vaccine, and a cruise line wants to sell you that experience.  A traditional conservative or libertarian would describe that as a capitalist act between consenting adults.  DeSantis believes the heavy hand of government should step in and make that contract illegal.

Let's not pretend Republicans would care about rights for anti-vaxxers if their ranks didn't include disproportionate numbers of Republicans.  Only the identity-politics aspect of the anti-vaxx, anti-mask crusade has driven Republicans to turn against their customary reverence for freedom of contract.  DeSantis hinted at the logic in unusually revealing terms two weeks ago.  "I'm sick of the judgmental stuff.  Nobody's trying to get ill here,” he lectured reporters.  "Let's not indulge that somehow it's their fault for not [getting vaccinated].”

Of course nobody wants to get sick.  Nobody wants to die in a car crash or go to prison, either, but some people drive drunk or commit felonies anyway, and generally people like DeSantis judge their behavior. ...  What principle grants somebody the extraordinary right to walk onto another person's property and spread a deadly virus?

-- Jonathan Chait, Intelligencer, A New Variant of COVID Denialism Has Emerged, 16 August 2021

On Average

There are, roughly speaking, an equal number of vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans.

This week, on average, a vaccinated American died of covid every day.  Some days it was 2 vaccinated Americans.

This week, on average, an unvaccinated American died of covid every 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

7-day average daily deaths as of 08/15/21: 678
Percentage of deaths among the unvaccinated: 99.8%

Please get vaccinated if you can.

Highly Unlikely

Well, first of all, the mission hasn't failed, yet.  There is in Afghanistan -- in all parties, there's been corruption.  The question is, can there be an agreement on unity of purpose?  What is the objective? 

For example, it started off -- there were going to be negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan National Security Forces and the Afghan government.  That -- it didn't come to fruition. 

So the question now is, where do they go from here?  That -- the jury is still out.  But the likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. 

-- President Joe Biden, responding when asked, "Mr. President, how serious was the corruption among the Afghanistan government to this mission failing there?", Remarks by President Biden on the Drawdown of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, 8 July 2021

Matthew & Adriana!

Congratulations to the newlyweds, my nephew Matthew Appleman, and his lovely bride Adriana. 

Rationalist

A rationalist, as I use the word, is a man who attempts to reach decisions by argument and perhaps, in certain cases, by compromise, rather than by violence.  He is a man who would rather be unsuccessful in convincing another man by argument than successful in crushing him by force, by intimidation and threats, or even by persuasive propaganda.

-- Sir Karl Raimund Popper (1902 - 1994), Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics, Utopia and Violence (1947)

Progressively Adequate

Knowing reality means constructing systems of transformations that correspond, more or less adequately, to reality.  They are more or less isomorphic to transformations of reality.  The transformational structures of which knowledge consists are not copies of the transformations in reality; they are simply possible isomorphic models among which experience can enable us to choose.  Knowledge, then, is a system of transformations that become progressively adequate.

-- Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980), Swiss developmental psychologist, famous for his work with children and his theory of cognitive development, Genetic Epistemology (1968) -- First lecture

Too Familiar

I have been too familiar with people.  My sense of humor can be insensitive and off-putting.  I do hug and kiss people casually, women and men.  I have done it all my life.  It's who I've been since I can remember.  In my mind, I've never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn't realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn.  There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn't fully appreciate, and I should have.  No excuses.

-- New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's, announcing his resignation, 10 August 2021

To Blink Facts

It is as fatal as it is cowardly to blink facts because they are not to our taste.

-- John Tyndall (1820 - 1893), Irish physicist, Fragments of Science, Vol. II (1879), Science and Man

I Just Think That They Pong

Sea lions are not like seals, the fools,
They have articulated flippers,
Go to private boarding schools,
And wear expensive slippers.

Sea lions are so snooty,
They are smooth and trim,
And none of them are cutey,
Because they're all too slim.

Sea lions get up my nose.
They show off to crowds,
They prance about and pose.
They're far too pompously proud.

I'm not saying they're stercoricolous,
Don't get me wrong,
I'm not at all jealous.
I just think that they pong.

-- Sebastian Seal, Novosibirsk, Siberia, 21 February 2010

A Sea Lion

Geography is the key, the crucial accident of birth.  A piece of protein could be a snail, a sea lion, or a systems analyst, but it had to start somewhere.  This is not science; it is merely metaphor.  And the landscape in which the protein "starts" shapes its end as surely as bowls shape water.

-- Annie Dillard (30 April 1945 -), American author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1974, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (2009)

Contrary Assumption

We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. ...  We have been wrong.  We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us.

-- Wendell Berry (5 August 1934 -), American philosopher, poet, and social activist, The Long-Legged House (1969), "A Native Hill"

Author And Finisher

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected?  I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us.  It cannot come from abroad.  If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.  As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

-- Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), 16th President of the United States, The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions: Lincoln's address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois (27 January 1838)

Still Growing

The number of covid cases continues to climb rapidly.

8/01/2021: 79,904 new cases / day -- Now (7-day average)
7/18/2021: 32,287 new cases / day -- 2 weeks ago
6/22/2021: 11,299 new cases / day -- Nadir
2/17/2021: 77,814 new cases / day -- Previous comparable rate

Deaths are up, but not nearly the 3x from nadir that cases made me fear.  Perhaps breakthrough cases, which rarely result in death, are diluting the death rate.  With about 1/2 of Americans vaccinated, the current death rate among the unvaccinated is about twice what it appears compared to, e.g., 1 year ago when 0% of Americans were vaccinated.

8/01/2021: 363 new deaths / day -- Now (7-day average)
7/18/2021: 266 new deaths / day -- 2 weeks ago
7/05/2021: 213 new deaths / day -- Nadir for deaths

The Bond

The bond between a man and his profession is similar to that which ties him to his country; it is just as complex, often ambivalent, and in general it is understood completely only when it is broken: by exile or emigration in the case of one's country, by retirement in the case of a trade or profession.

-- Primo Levi (31 July 1919 - 11 April 1987), Italian chemist and author of memoirs, short stories, poems, and novels, Other People's Trades (1985), "Ex-Chemist"

My Retirement Program

Millennials are the first generation of US Americans to have life prospects worse than their parents.  The astronomical student debt load means that many young people put off the major purchases and life events linked to adulthood in the US -- buying a car or a house, getting married.  At the same time, in highly populated cities like San Francisco, LA, Seattle, and NYC, rents are out of control.  And we don't have national healthcare.  So paying for the basics of everyday life has become impossible.  And we are told repeatedly that social security is in crisis and won't survive.  As one young person told me: "My retirement program is socialism".

-- Jodi Dean (1962 -), American political theorist and professor in the Political Science department at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York state, "More than a third of millennials approve of communism, YouGov poll indicates", The Independent, 7 November 2019

Easiest And Most Comfortable

It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes.  It may even lie on the surface; but we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions -- especially selfish ones.

-- Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918 - 2008), Russian philosopher, novelist, dramatist and historian; 1970 Nobel Laureate in Literature, "Peace and Violence" (1973)

A Scary Recipe

They came up, I think this was maybe their second or third time that they had come up on January 6th.  And even then, as belligerent as they were, it didn't account to this violence.  So the only difference that I see in that is that they had marching orders so to say.  When people feel emboldened by people in power, they assume that they're right.  One of the scariest things about January 6th is that the people that were there, even to this day think that they were right.  They think that they were right and that makes for a scary recipe for the future of this country.  So I think that's why it's very important that you all take this committee seriously and get to the bottom of why this happened and let's make it never happen again.

-- US Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, 13-year veteran of the United States Capitol Police and a member of its first responder unit, in testimony to the January 6 House Select Committee, 27 July 2021

The Maker

The poet is, etymologically, the maker.  Like all makers, he requires a stock of raw materials -- in his case, experience.  Now experience is not a matter of having actually swum the Hellespont, or danced with the dervishes, or slept in a doss-house.  It is a matter of sensibility and intuition, of seeing and hearing the significant things, of paying attention at the right moments, of understanding and coordinating.  Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.  It is a gift for dealing with the accidents of existence, not the accidents themselves.  By a happy dispensation of nature, the poet generally possesses the gift of experience in conjunction with that of expression.  What he says so well is therefore intrinsically of value.

-- Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 - 22 November 1963), British author, most famous for his novel Brave New World, Texts and Pretexts (1932) p. 5

Any Other Olympics

I saw a headline today that read, "Three Czech Athletes Test Positive" and all I could think was: Any other Olympics, and that headline would refer to a test for banned substances.  Not for Tokyo 2020.

My Position Is Mistaken

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again.  They really do it.  It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful.  But it happens every day.  I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

-- Carl Edward Sagan (1934 - 1996), American astronomer and popular science writer, Keynote address at 1987 CSICOP conference, as quoted in Do Science and the Bible Conflict? (2003) by Judson Poling, p. 30

If We Are Uncritical

If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories.  In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted.

-- Sir Karl Raimund Popper (1902 - 1994), Austrian and British philosopher, and professor at the London School of Economics, The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 29 The Unity of Method

Listen Closely

We are all climbing different paths through the mountain of life, and we have all experienced much hardship and strife.  There are many paths through the mountain of life, and some climbs can be felt like the point of a knife.  Some paths are short and others are long, who can say which path is right or wrong?  The beauty of truth is that each path has its own song, and if you listen closely you will find where you belong.  So climb your own path true and strong, but respect all other truths for your way for them could be wrong. 

-- Daniel Arca Inosanto (24 July 1936 -), American martial arts instructor who is best known as a training partner of Bruce Lee, from his website at https://inosanto.com/

Growing

The number of covid cases is climbing surprisingly quickly.

7/18/2021: 32,287 new cases / day -- Now (7-day average)
6/22/2021: 11,299 new cases / day -- Nadir
5/17/2021: 32,025 new cases / day -- Previous comparable rate

The climb in cases was so quick, it doesn't show up yet in increased deaths.  The nadir for cases was 13 days before the nadir for deaths.  Presumably the ~3x growth in cases will show up in deaths in the next 13 days.

7/18/2021: 266 new deaths / day -- Now (7-day average)
7/05/2021: 213 new deaths / day -- Nadir for deaths
6/22/2021: 323 new deaths / day -- Nadir for cases

Plant Trees

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.

-- Nelson Henderson, WW I veteran and farmer near Minitonas, Manitoba, Canada

Practice What You Know

Try to put well in practice what you already know; and in so doing, you will in good time, discover the hidden things which you now inquire about.  Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know. 

-- Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 - 4 October 1669), Dutch draughtsman, painter, and printmaker, generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in history, as cited in A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, both Ancient and Modern (1908) by Tryon Edwards, p. 131

Alt Tour

As the Tour de France enters its final act after the second rest day, one EF Education-Nippo rider can put his feet up, content with a job well done.  That rider -- Lachlan Morton -- has just completed his Alt Tour, riding the entire Tour de France route, including all transfers, unsupported. 

That meant 5,510 km, instead of the Tour route's 3,383 km.  65,500 metres of vertical gain rather than the Tour's 42,200 m.  18 days of riding without a day's rest, versus the peloton's 21 and two rest days.  And all while sleeping under the stars, fixing his own punctures, taking care of his own mechanicals, and keeping himself fed and watered. 

The Australian rider, who has approached the sport from his own unique perspective throughout his career, set off from Brittany just after the Tour began and quickly built a lead over the race, cycling longer days and banking distance to give him enough of a buffer over the peloton for the final 700 km+ transfer north to Paris. 

-- Iain Treloar, "Lachlan Morton Has Beaten The Tour De France to Paris By Five Days", cyclingtips.com, 13 July 2021

We Need Not Travel Far

Let us not, however, deceive ourselves with the thought that vaulting ambition, that lust for power and place is a disease peculiar to great minds, for nothing is more commonly found among ordinary men in the humbler walks of life.  We need not travel very far in any direction to find a little Caesar or a little Napoleon.

-- William Henry Crogman (1841 - 1931), pioneering African American educator and classicist at Clark University of Atlanta in the United States, "The Importance of Correct Ideals", Address To The Students Of Talladega College, Talladega, Alabama, (June 1892)

Welcome

We're here to make space more accessible to all.  We want to turn the next generation of dreamers into the astronauts of today and tomorrow.  We've all us on this stage have had the most extraordinary experience, and we'd love it if a number of you can have it, too. ...  If you ever had a dream, now is the time to make it come true -- and I'd like to end by saying welcome to the dawn of a new space age.

-- Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (18 July 1950 -), British entrepreneur, best known for the businesses he helped create under the Virgin brand name, quoted in "Richard Branson goes to space", by Jackie Wattles, Fernando Alfonso III, and Mike Hayes, CNN (11 July 2021)

Where Empires Go

Afghanistan -- where empires go to die.

-- Michael Dennis Malloy (1942 -), progressive American radio broadcaster based in Atlanta, now self-syndicated, quoted in Humans On The Run, by Kumar Tiku (2018)

Walking Wounded

Under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded.  We have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.

-- Robert Anton Wilson (1932 - 2007), American novelist, essayist, absurdist philosopher, futurist, and guerilla ontologist, most famous for his satirical work (with Robert Shea), The Illuminatus! Trilogy.  Attributed

Avoidable And Preventable

If you look at the number of deaths, about 99.2 percent of them are unvaccinated.  About 0.8 percent are vaccinated.  No vaccine is perfect.  But when you talk about the avoidability of hospitalization and death, Chuck, it's really sad and tragic that most all of these are avoidable and preventable

I mean, obviously there are going to be some people, because of the variability among people and their response to vaccine, that you'll see some who are vaccinated and still get into trouble and get hospitalized and die.  But the overwhelming proportion of people who get into trouble are the unvaccinated.  Which is the reason why we say this is really entirely avoidable and preventable.

-- Dr Anthony Fauci, speaking to Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press", 4 July 2021; there were 9,987 deaths in the US in June

In A Wind Tunnel

Everybody has opinions: I have them, you have them.  And we are all told from the moment we open our eyes, that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.  Well, that's horsepuckey, of course.  We are not entitled to our opinions; we are entitled to our informed opinions.  Without research, without background, without understanding, it's nothing.  It's just bibble-babble.  It's like a fart in a wind tunnel, folks.

-- Harlan Jay Ellison (1934 - 2018), American writer known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction, and for his outspoken, combative personality, Commentary on Sci-Fi Channel's Sci-Fi Buzz

Booted And Spurred

All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man.  The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.  These are grounds of hope for others.  For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

-- Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 - 4 July 1826), author of the Declaration of Independence (1776)), founder of the University of Virginia (1819), third President of the United States (1801-1809), Letter to Roger C. Weightman, declining to attend July 4th ceremonies in Washington D.C. celebrating the 50th anniversary of Independence, because of his health.  This was Jefferson's last letter (24 June 1826)

Two Great Ideals

If a single statute represents the best of America, it is the Voting Rights Act.  It marries two great ideals: democracy and racial equality.  And it dedicates our country to carrying them out. 

If a single statute reminds us of the worst of America, it is the Voting Rights Act.  Because it was -- and remains -- so necessary.  Because States and localities continually contriv[ed] new rules," mostly neutral on their face but discriminatory in operation, to keep minority voters from the polls.  Because "Congress had reason to suppose" that States would "try similar maneuvers in the future" -- "pour[ing] old poison into new bottles" to suppress minority votes.  

Maybe some think that vote suppression is a relic of history -- and so the need for a potent Section 2 has come and gone.  But Congress gets to make that call.  Because it has not done so, this Court's duty is to apply the law as it is written.  The law that confronted one of this country's most enduring wrongs; pledged to give every American, of every race, an equal chance to participate in our democracy; and now stands as the crucial tool to achieve that goal.  That law, of all laws, deserves the sweep and power Congress gave it.  That law, of all laws, should not be diminished by this Court.

-- Justice Kagan, with whom Justice Breyer and Justice Sotomayor join, dissenting, in Arizona Republican Party v Democratic National Committee, 1 July 2021

Lived, Not Taught

The doctrine you desire, absolute, perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist.  Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend.  Rather, you should long for the perfection of yourself.  The deity is within you, not in ideas and books.  Truth is lived, not taught.

-- Hermann Karl Hesse (1877 - 1962), German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter; 1946 Nobel Laureate in Literature.  The Glass Bead Game (1943)