“Society today seems to be easily offended. We are quick to anger, and some people believe every offensive act, no matter the intent, requires a swift rebuke. The hardest thing any hero can do is to forgive. It is easier to storm the hill, fight the fire, and stop a madman with a gun. It is hard to forgive, because we are afraid. Afraid that forgiving will take away the anger that drives us, the hatred that motivates us, the righteous indignation of being wronged. We want more than anything to harness the outrage, feel the power of injustice, and the fury of discontent, so we can lash out at the offender and feel justified. We think that retribution, no matter how small or how large, will soothe our soul. It will not.”
William McRaven
“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to them we call them ordinary things.”
Hans Christian Andersen
“Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes: it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something else is taken. Society acquires new arts and loses old instincts.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson