You Have To Adapt

I think definitely as you age, you have to adapt, and that's some of what I've tried to do.  I've tried to get ahead of it.  You can't just try to do the same thing you did the year before.  But yeah, kind of the stigma that as you get older, you're going to keep getting worse.  I mean, nobody likes that.  They don't like being told you can't do something, so it's definitely motivation.

-- St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, on being voted the National League MVP, in an interview on MLB Network (17 November 2022).  Goldschmidt led the NL in slugging (.578) and OPS (.981), hitting .317 with 35 home runs and 115 RBIs for the season

A New Generation

Now, we must move boldly into the future: grounded by the principles that have propelled us this far and open to fresh possibilities for the future.

Scripture teaches us that: "For everything there is a season -- a time for every purpose under heaven."

My friends, no matter what title you all, my colleagues, have bestowed upon me -- Speaker, Leader, Whip -- there is no greater official honor for me than to stand on this Floor and to speak for the people of San Francisco.

This I will continue to do as a Member of the House: speaking for the people of San Francisco, serving the great State of California and defending our Constitution.

And with great confidence in our Caucus, I will not seek re-election to Democratic Leadership in the next Congress.

For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic Caucus that I so deeply respect.

-- Nancy Patricia Pelosi (1940 -), American politician serving as speaker of the US House of Representatives since 2019, and previously from 2007 to 2011, in a floor speech announcing her future plans, 17 November 2022

Only Irony

If parody alone can adequately render the reality of our times, only irony offers us the freedom and detachment that are the essential condition of responsible analysis and action.

-- Theodore Ziolkowski (1932 - 2020), scholar in the fields of German studies and comparative literature, in the Foreword of a 1969 edition of The Glass Bead Game (1943) by Hermann Hesse

When They See It

Arizonans know BS when they see it.

-- Republican candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake, in a tweet that ironically explains her loss to Democratic Governor-elect Katie Hobbs, 14 November 2022

A Milestone

On 15 November 2022, the world's population is projected to reach 8 billion people, a milestone in human development.  This unprecedented growth is due to the gradual increase in human lifespan owing to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine.  It is also the result of high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries.

While it took the global population 12 years to grow from 7 to 8 billion, it will take approximately 15 years -- until 2037 -- for it to reach 9 billion, a sign that the overall growth rate of the global population is slowing.

-- Statement by the United Nations on their "Day of Eight Billion" web page

You Kept The Faith

Today we pay homage not only to those who gave their lives but to their comrades present today and all across the country.  You didn't forget.  You kept the faith.  You walked from the litter, wiped away your tears, and returned to the battle.  You fought on, sustained by one another and deaf to the voices of those who didn't comprehend.  You performed with a steadfastness and valor that veterans of other wars salute, and you are forever in the ranks of that special number of Americans in every generation that the Nation records as true patriots.

-- President Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004), Remarks at Dedication Ceremonies for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Statue, 11 November 1984

The Fear Of One Evil

Souvent la peur d'un mal nous conduit dans un pire.

Often the fear of one evil leads us into a worse.

-- Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636 - 1711), commonly called Boileau, French poet and critic, The Art of Poetry (1674), Canto I, l. 64

The Privilege To Concede

I have a privilege right now, a privilege, as someone who was the Democratic nominee, I have the privilege to concede this race to J.D. Vance.  Because the way this country operates is that when you lose an election, you concede.  And you respect the will of the people.  Right?  We can't have a system where if you win, it's a legitimate election, and if you lose, someone stole it.  That is not how we can move forward in the United States. 

-- Democratic senate candidate Tim Ryan, in his concession speech acknowledging the electoral victory of Republican J. D. Vance, 8 November 2022

Rock The Vote!

Rock the vote, people! 

What Has Gone Wrong

When citizens are relatively equal, politics has tended to be fairly democratic.  When a few individuals hold enormous amounts of wealth, democracy suffers.  The reason for this pattern is simple.  Through campaign contributions, lobbying, influence over public discourse, and other means, wealth can be translated into political power.  When wealth is highly concentrated -- that is, when a few individuals have enormous amounts of money -- political power tends to be highly concentrated, too.  The wealthy few tend to rule.  Average citizens lose political power.  Democracy declines. 

-- Benjamin I. Page (born c. 1939 -), Gordon S. Fulcher Professor of Decision Making at Northwestern University, with Martin Gilens, Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It (University of Chicago Press: 2017), p. 19

First Rate

I wrote somewhere once that the third-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the majority, the second-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the minority, and the first-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking.

-- Alan Alexander (A. A.) Milne (1882 - 1956), English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, War with Honour, Macmillan War Pamphlets, Issue 2 (1940)

Poetry Of Words

I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as the Rhythmical Creation of Beauty.

-- Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849), American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic, The Poetic Principle (1850)

Each Opening Creating Another

The difference between an expert and a novice fighter is that the expert makes use of each opportunity and follows up on each opening.  He makes use of his sensitive and dominating aura and his imposing rhythm.  He delivers his blows and/or kicks in a well-planned series, each opening creating another, until finally a clean shot is obtained.

-- Lee Jun-fan (1940 - 1973), commonly known as Bruce Lee, Hong Kong American martial artist and actor, Tao Of Jeet Kune Do (1975), p. 208

[This sounds like business advice, pocket billiards, and martial arts all at once.]

Disorderly

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.

-- Alan Alexander (A. A.) Milne (1882 - 1956), English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, Year In, Year Out, page 130 (1952)

Most American

In many ways, Halloween is the most American of holidays: secular, irreverent, and unashamedly consumerist.  And as with many American cultural products, it has become a wildly successful export.

-- Lisa Morton (1958 -), American horror author and screenwriter, in: Eugenia Williamson Böö! Halloween’s quest for world domination, The Boston Globe, 28 October 2012

It Didn't Take A Year

I don't think that that's something that baseball should really be proud of.  It looks bad.  It let's people know it didn't take a year or even a decade to get to this point.  But there is help on the way.  You can tell by the number of African American No. 1 draft choices.

-- Johnnie B. "Dusty" Baker Jr. (15 June 1949 -), American baseball manager and former outfielder who is the manager of the Houston Astros in Major League Baseball, currently playing the 2022 World Series, regarding the fact that the 2022 Series features zero U.S.-born Black players for the first time since 1950, 27 October 2022

Justice Is

I remember -- the interruption of the honorable Gentleman reminds me of the words of a great writer, who said that "Grace was beauty in action."  Sir, I say that justice is truth in action.  Truth should animate an opposition, and I hope it does animate this opposition.

-- Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804 - 1881), British politician, novelist, and essayist, serving twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, speech in the House of Commons (2 February 1851)

A Progressive Discovery

Sixty years ago I knew everything.  Now I know nothing.  Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

-- William James Durant (1885 - 1981), American historian, philosopher, and writer, quoted in "Books: The Great Gadfly", Time magazine, 8 October 1965 (review of The Age of Voltaire by Will and Ariel Durant)

The Last Fifteen Minutes

For the first half hour, you don't think of anything, the next 15 minutes you're thinking about how you can do something big and the last 15 minutes I wanted to fall off just to put an end to the agony.  I wanted to puncture, anything, and finish the bid there and then.  I just couldn't go on.

-- Italian cyclist Filippo Ganna who beat the Hour Record in Grenchen, Switzerland, pushing it to 56.792 kilometres, a huge jump on the previous total of 55.548, set by Brit Dan Bigham on 19th August 2022, also at the Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen.  Ganna spoke to El País newspaper in an interview made during the Ineos Grenadiers training camp in Nice, 8 October 2022

Warm-Heartedness

How we live from day to day affects our future.  Warm-heartedness is the key factor.  I think about it always because it’s warm-heartedness that brings us peace of mind.

-- The Dalai Lama, via Twitter as @DalaiLama, 3 October 2022