Well, 2023 is almost over, so I should probably share some of my favorite quotes from last year.
For context, I keep a running list of impactful sentences that I come across throughout the year.
Presented below in order from most recent to oldest.
"Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycle of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us bring our minds together as one. We give greetings and thanks to each other as People. Now our minds are one." Thanksgiving address John Stokes (Braiding Sweetgrass)
"what I'm looking for, I suppose, is balance, and that is a moving target. Balance is not a passive resting place - it takes work, balancing the giving and the taking, the raking out and the pudding in." - Braiding Sweetgrass
Marshawn Lynch: "That's when it just clicked in my mind that if you just run through somebody face, a lot of people ain't gon be able to take that over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. They just not gon want that."
Reporter: "Think there's a deeper metaphor there?"
Lynch: "Run through a muthafucka face... Then you don't have to worry about em no more."
"...How many beyblades do you own?"
"...I'd like to get away from earth awhile. And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me. And half grant what I wish and snatch me away. Not to return.
Earth’s the right place for love: I don’t know where it's likely to go better. I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk. Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches."
Robert Frost, 1969
"I used to think the top environmental problems facing the world were global warming, environmental degradation and ecosystem collapse, and that we scientists could fix those problems with enough science. But I was wrong. The real problem is not those three items, but greed selfishness and apathy. And for that we need a spiritual and cultural transformation. And we scientists don't know how to do that." - Gus Speth
"Alienation from nature and the loss of the experience of being part of the living creation is the greatest tragedy of our materialistic era. It is the causative reason for ecological devastation and climate change. Therefore I attribute the absolute highest importance to consciousness change." Albert Hofmann, 102.
"But the sea is a different sort of enemy unlike the land where courage and the simple will to endure can often see a man through, the struggle against the sea is an act of physical combat, and there is no escape. It's a battle against a tireless enemy in which man can never actually win; the most that he can hope for is not to be defeated." - 'Endurance' Lansing
"Though everyone was fully aware that their situation was becoming more critical by the hour, it was much easier to face danger on a reasonably full stomach." Endurance, Lansing
[Regarding sea ice movement in Antarctica] "The whole sensation was of something colossal, of something too big to grasp." - Macklin, 'Endurance'
"I'd you ask him: "What is silence?" he will answer: 'It is the Great Mystery!" "The holy silence is His voice!" If you ask: "What are the fruits of silence?" He will say: "They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character." - Ohiyesa
"Necessity is an independent concept. It has a different structure from logic, morals or meaning. It's function lies entirely in the role it plays. But what doesn't play a role shouldn't exist. What necessity requires does need to exist." Kafka on the Shore, Murakami
"- now that the very name "space" seemed a blasphemous libel for this empyrean ocean of radiance in which they swam. He could not call it 'dead'; he felt life pouring in at every moment. How indeed should it be otherwise, since out of this ocean the world and all their life had come? He had thought it barren: he saw now that it was the womb of worlds, who's blazing an innumerable offspring look down nightly even upon the Earth with so many eyes." - C.S. Lewis 'Out of the Silent Planet'
"Keep strong, if possible. In any case, keep cool. Have unlimited patience. Never corner an opponent, and always assist him to save face. Put yourself in his shoes - so as to see things through his eyes. Avoid self-righteousness like the devil - nothing is so self blinding." - B.H. Liddell Hart