«We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.»

Jonathan Swift *

* (Dublin, Ireland 30-Nov-1667 / 19-Oct-1745), writer and satirist.

«History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there.»

George Santayana*

* (Madrid, Spain 16-Dec-1863 / Rome, Italy 26-Sep-1952).
Philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Santayana, like many philosophers since the late nineteenth century, was a naturalist (that is, he denied the existence of supernatural beings, like gods and ghosts), but he found profound meaning in literary writings and in religious ideas and texts (which he regarded as fundamentally akin to literature).

«Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.»

Rabindranath Tagore *

* (Calcutta, India, 7-May-1861 / 7-Aug-1941) Philosopher and Poet, he won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1913. He's the author of Bangladesh's Anthem.

«I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.»

Martin Luther King, Jr. *

*(Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. 15-Jan-1929 / Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. 4-Apr-1968).
Baptist minister and African American civil rights activist, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

«I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.»

Albert Einstein *

* (Ulm, Germany 14-Mar-1879 / Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. 18-Apr-1955).
Physicist and mathematician who proposed the theory of relativity. He won the The Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

«When I can look Life in the eyes,
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the Truth,
And taken in exchange - my youth.»

Sara Teasdale *

* (St. Louis, Missouri 8-Aug-1884 / New York, NY 29-Jan-1933).
Lyrical poet, in 1918 she won the Columbia University Poetry Society Prize (the forerunner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry).

«The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.»

St. Augustine of Hippo *

* (Tagaste, North Africa 354 / Hippo, Algeria 430).
Catholic saint, bishop of Hippo, one of the Latin Fathers.

«The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.»

Winston Churchill *

* (Oxfordshire, England 30-Nov-1874 / London 24-Jan-1965).
British PM during the World War II. He received, in 1953, The Nobel Prize in Literature.

«Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.»

G. Bernard Shaw *

* (Dublin, Ireland 26-Jul-1856 / Hertfordshire, England 2-Nov-1950).
Playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics.
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1925 and the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay in 1938, for "Pygmalion".

«It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle.»

Frederick Buechner *

*(New York, NY, U.S. 11-Jul-1926).
Author of more than thirty published books thus far, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

«Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.»

George Eliot *


* (Warwickshire, England 22-Nov-1819 / London, England 22-Dec-1880).
Novelist who used many of her real-life experiences in her books, which she wrote under a man's name in order to improve her chances of publication.

«I'll be floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee.»

Muhammad Ali*


*(Louisville, Kentucky 17-Jan-1942) world's greatest heavyweight boxer.

«You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it.»

Art Buchwald *

* (Mount Vernon, New York, U.S. 20-Oct-1925).
Film writer and actor, won the Pulitzer Prize for outstanding commentary in 1982.

«When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them, they show us the state of our decay.»

Brian Aldiss *

* (East Dereham, England 18-Aug-1925) science fiction writer, anthologist, and critic.

«I'm fat, but I'm thin inside; there's a thin man inside every fat man.»

George Orwell *

* (Motihari, India 25-Jun-1903 / London, England 21-Jan-1950).
British author best known for his allegorical political novels, "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four".

«What is life? A madness. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story. And the greatest good is little enough; for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams.»

Pedro Calderon de la Barca*

* (Madrid, Spain 17-Jan-1600 / 25-May-1681).
Dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. During certain periods of his life he was also a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest.

«All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.»

Cyril Connolly *

* (Coventry, Warwickshire, England 10-Sep-1903 / London, England 26-Nov-1974.
Literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizon (1940–49) and wrote Enemies of Promise (1938), which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of fiction that he had aspired to be in his youth.

«Oh, how I love the Earth and everything in it, life and death. And men. One can think of nothing finer, or nicer, than men … their wars, their concentration camps, their justice.»

Marcel Aymé *

* (Joigny, France 29-Mar-1902 / Paris 14-Oct-1967).
Novelist, humourist and children's writer.

«There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. While the first is the condition of a free society, the second means as DeTocqueville describes it, a new form of servitude.»

Friedrich August von Hayek *

* (Vienna, Austria 8-May-1899 / Freiburg, Germany 23-Mar-1992)
The most eminent of the modern Austrian economists, won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974.

«I hold it a blasphemy to say that a man ought not to fight against authority: there is no great religion and no great freedom that has not done it, in the beginning.»

George Eliot

«The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor's shortcomings as he is of his own.»

Eric Hoffer *

* (New York, NY, U.S. 1902 / 1983) "The longshoreman philosopher" was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.

«I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.»

Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi *

*(Porbandar, British Indian Empire 2-Oct-1869 / New Delhi, India 30-Jan-1948).
He was the leader of Indian independence movement. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. His birthday is commemorated as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and world-wide as the International Day of Nonviolence.

«Why doesn't she like me? Is it my hair, my overbite, the fact that I've worn the same shirt and shorts for the last four years?»

Bart Simpson *

* (Bartholemew Jojo Simpson, Springfield, Illinois, U.S. 1-Apr-1980)

«The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.»

Eleanor Roosevelt *

* (New York, NY, U.S. 11-Oct-1884 / 7-Nov-1962)
Human rights activist and First Lady of the U. S.

«Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.»

Oscar Wilde *

* (Dublin, Ireland 16-Oct-1854 / Paris, France 30-Nov-1900).
Poet and dramatist whose reputation rests on his comic masterpieces "Lady Windermere's Fan" and "The Importance of Being Earnest".

«My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the hell she is.»

Ellen DeGeneres *

* (Metairie, Louisiana, U.S. 26-Jan-1958).
Comedian, television host, actress, writer, and television producer. She was the star in the popular sitcom "Ellen" from 1994 to 1998, and has hosted her syndicated talk show "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" since 2003.

«It takes a long time to become young.»

Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispin Crispiniano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz Blasco Picasso y Lopez*

* (Malaga, Spain 25-Oct-1881 / Mougins, France 8-Apr-1973).
Painter, most famous as the founder, along with Georges Braque, of Cubism.

«If God does not exist, one will lose nothing by believing in him, while if he does exist, one will lose everything by not believing. »

Blaise Pascal *

* (Clermont-Ferrand, France 19-Jun-1623 / Paris 19-Aug-1662).
Mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher. Among his contributions to the natural sciences are construction of mechanical calculators, considerations on probability theory, studies of fluids, and clarification of concepts such as pressure and vacuum. Following a profound religious experience in 1654, Pascal abandoned mathematics and physics for philosophy and theology.

«I have as much privacy as a goldfish in a bowl.»

Princess Margaret *

* (Glamis Castle, Scotland 21-August-1930 / London, England 9-Feb-2002) the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II and for a brief time was second in line to the British throne.

«What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.»

Pearl Bailey *

* (Newport News, Virginia, U.S. 29-Mar-1918 / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. 17-Aug-1990). Actress and singer. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale.

«If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.»

Mother Teresa*

* (Skopje, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire 26-Aug-1910 / Calcutta, West Bengal, India 5-Sep-1997).
Roman Catholic Religious Sister and missionary who lived most of her life in India. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4500 sisters and is active in 133 countries.
A controversial figure both during her life and after her death, Mother Teresa was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003, she was beatified as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta".

«Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can't sleep with the window open.»

G. Bernard Shaw

«To love another person is to see the face of God»

Victor Hugo *

* (Besançon, France 26-Feb-1802 / Paris, France 22-May-1885).
One of the most powerful and popular authors of 19th century France, and a champion of republicanism exiled during the reign of Napoleon III and returned in 1870.

«The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.»

Thomas Jefferson *

* (Albermarle County, Virginia 13-Apr-1743 / Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia, U.S. 4-Jul-1826 On the independence 50th anniversary).
Was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, and a source of many other contributions to American culture. After an electoral tie, Jefferson was elected President and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives. Jefferson was the only Vice President elected to the Presidency and serve two full terms.
Coincidentally, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only signers of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as Presidents of the United States, died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration.

«Some stories are trues that never happened.»

Elie Wiesel*

*(Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania 30-Sep-1928).
Romanian-born Jewish-American professor and political activist. He is the author of 57 books. Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

«What is sad for women of my generation is that they weren't supposed to work if they had families. What were they going to do when the children are grown - watch the raindrops coming down the window pane?»

Jacqueline Kennedy *

* (New York, NY, U.S. 28-Jul-1929 / 19-May-1994).
First Lady, wife of John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States. For the final two decades of her life, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had a career as a book editor.

«I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.»

Elizabeth Barrett Browning *

* (Durham, England 6-Mar-1806 / 29-Jun-1861).
The most respected female poet of the Victorian era. Her most famous work is "Sonnets from the Portuguese".

«It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.»

Jiddu Krishnamurti *

* (Madanapalle, India 11-May-1895 / 17-Feb-1986) He did not expound any philosophy or religion, but spoke of the everyday matters that concern all human beings—the problems of living in modern society with violence and corruption, the individual's search for meaning, security and happiness; and our need to free ourselves from the inner burdens of fear, anger, hurt and sorrow. He talked of the need to have a deeply meditative and religious quality in our daily life.

«There is more to life than increasing its speed.»

Mohandas Gandhi

«Traditions are the guideposts driven deep in our subconscious minds. The most powerful ones are those we can't even describe and aren't even aware of.»

Ellen Goodman *

* (Newton, Massachusetts, U. S. 11-Apr-1941)
Journalist who wrote about issues that spanned the range from personal to political, she won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary, in 1980. She is noted for being one of the first women in the United States to discuss women's rights openly.

«The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.»

Mark Twain *

* (Florida, Missouri, U.S. 30-Nov-1835 / Redding, Connecticut, U.S. 21-Apr-1910).
Writer, journalist and humorist, who won a worldwide audience for his stories of the youthful adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

«I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said 'Stop! don't do it!' 'Why shouldn't I?' he said. I said, 'Well, there's so much to live for!' He said, 'Like what?' I said, 'Well... are you religious or atheist?' He said, 'Religious.' I said, 'Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?' He said, 'Christian.' I said, 'Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?' He said, 'Protestant.' I said, 'Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?' He said, 'Baptist!' I said, 'Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist church of god or Baptist church of the lord?' He said, 'Baptist church of god!' I said, 'Me too! Are you original Baptist church of god, or are you reformed Baptist church of god?' He said, 'Reformed Baptist church of god!' I said, 'Me too! Are you reformed Baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed Baptist church of god, reformation of 1915?' He said, 'Reformed Baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!' I said, 'Die, heretic scum,' and pushed him off.»

Emo Philips*

* (Downers Grove, Illinois, U.S. 7-Feb-1956).
One of the strangest (in looks, presentation, and attitude) of the current crop of new comics.

«Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.»

Jorge Luis Borges *

* (Buenos Aires, Argentina 24-Aug-1899 / Geneva, Switzerland 14-Jun-1986).
Poet, essayist, and short-story writer, whose tales of fantasy and dreamworlds are classics of the 20th-century world literature.

«Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life.»

Jackie Robinson*

*Cairo, Georgia, U.S. 31-Jan-1919 / Stamford, Connecticut, U.S. 24–Oct-1972).
American baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era.

«Such is the human race. Often it does seem such a pity that Noah... didn't miss the boat.»

Mark Twain

«The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.»

Albert Einstein

«Religion is the idol of the mob; it adores everything it does not understand.»

Frederick the Great *

* (Berlin, Germany 24-Jan-1712 / Potsdam 17-Aug-1786).
Was the Hohenzollern king of Prussia, from 1740-86.

«Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.»

Buddha *


* (Kapilavastu, India c.563 / c.483 BC).
The founder of Buddhism, one of the great religions of the world. He was the son of a wealthy ruler of a kingdom near Nepal, in Asia. Many miracles are said to have herald his birth. When Siddhartha realized the misery of the world, he left his palace, his father, his wife and his children, and wandered for seven years seeking the truth.

«Faith... Must be enforced by reason...When faith becomes blind it dies.»

Mohandas Gandhi

«Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?»

Holly Near *

* (Ukiah, California 1949) promoted a variety of left-wing political causes with music that touched on folk, rock, and the musical theater, starting in the early 1970s.

«Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.»

G. Bernard Shaw

«To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand.»

Jose Ortega y Gasset *

* (Madrid, Spain 9-May-1883 / 18-Oct-1955).
Liberal philosopher and essayist working during the first half of the 20th century while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism and dictatorship. His philosophy has been characterized as a "philosophy of life" which "comprised a long-hidden beginning in a pragmatist metaphysics.

«In music the passions enjoy themselves.»

Friedrich Nietzsche*

* (Rocken, Prussia 15-Oct-1844 / Weimar, Germany 25-Aug-1900).
Classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers.

«Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.»

George Eliot

«On my way here I passed a local cinema and it turned out you were expecting me after all, for the billboards read: The Mummy Returns.»

Margaret Thatcher *

* (Grantham, England 13-Oct-1925 / London, England 8-Apr-2013).
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist called her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.

«With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.»

Eric Hoffer

«Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?»

Leonardo da Vinci *

* (Vinci, Republic of Florence 15-Apr-1452 / Amboise, France 2-May-1519)
Architect, inventor, engineer, sculptor and painter, he can be seen as the archetype of the Renaissance Man.

«Art produces ugly things which frequently become beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.»

Jean Cocteau *

* (Maisons-Laffitte, France 5-Jul-1889 / Milly-la-Foret 11-Oct-1963).
One of the most multi-talented artists of the 20th century. In addition to being a director, he was a poet, novelist, painter, playwright, set designer, and actor.

«If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.»

Dwight D. Eisenhower *

* (Denison, Texas. U.S. 14-Oct-1890 / 28-Mar-1969 Washington, D.C., U.S.).
34th (1953-1961) President of the United States, supreme commander of Allied Forces, during the latter part of World War II, and the General of the United States Army.

«The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.»

William Orville Douglas *

* (Maine, Minnesota, U.S. 16-Oct-1898 / 19-Jan-1980).
One of the most liberal and activist justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and a vigorous and controversial writer. W. O. Douglas holds the record for the longest continuous service on his nation's most powerful Court: 36 years and 7 months.

«In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.»

Robert Green Ingersoll *

* (Dresden, New York, U.S. 11-Aug-1833 / Dobbs Ferry-on-Hudson, NY, U.S. 21-Jul-1899).
Political leader and orator, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of atheism.

«I fell asleep reading a dull book and dreamed I kept on reading, so I awoke from sheer boredom.»

Heinrich Heine *

* (Düsseldorf, Germany 13-Dec-1797 / Paris, France 17-Feb-1856).
Poet best known for his lyric poetry, much of which was set to music by lieder composers, most notably Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann.

«He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden.»

Plato*

* (Athens, Greece 428 to 423 BC / 348 or 347 BC).
Philosopher, as well as mathematician and an influential figure in philosophy, central in Western philosophy. He was Socrates' student, and founded the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with Socrates and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.

«For it is in giving that we receive.»

Saint Francis of Assisi *

* (Died in October 3, 1226, Assisi, Italy, where he was born probably in 1181 or 1182).
He was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis. Though he was never ordained to the Catholic priesthood, Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history.

«Photography is truth.»

Jean-Luc Godard*

* (Paris, France 3-Dec-1930) French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement La Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave". Among many other prizes, received the Academy Honorary Award, in 2010 and the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2007
*
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«Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that.»

Michael Leunig*`

*(Melbourne, Australia 2-Jun-1945).
Cartoonist, poet and cultural commentator.

«Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.»

Bertrand Russell*

* (Trellech, Monmouthshire, Wales 18-May-1872 / Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales 2-Feb-1970).
British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, social critic and political activist. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound sense.

«It's a great excuse and luxury, having a job and blaming it for your inability to do your own [art]. When you don't have to work, you are left with the horror of facing your own lack of imagination and your own emptiness. A devastating possibility when finally time is your own.»

Julian Schnabel*

*(Brooklyn, New York, U.S. 26-Oct-1951)
Artist and filmmaker. In the 1980s, received international media attention for his "plate paintings"—large-scale paintings set on broken ceramic plates.

«The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze.»

Buddha

«To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.»

Elliott Erwitt*

* (Paris, France 26-July-1928).
Advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings— a master of Henri Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment".
In 1939, at the age of ten, Erwitt's family, of Russian origin, immigrated to the United States. Erwitt studied photography and filmmaking at Los Angeles City College and the New School for Social Research, finishing his education in 1950.

«Very few people can afford to be poor.»

George Bernard Shaw

«Any intelligent woman who reads the marriage contract, and then goes into it, deserves all the consequences.»

Isadora Duncan*

* (San Francisco, California, U.S. 27-May-1877 / Nice, France 14-Sep-1927)
American dancer, lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. She performed to acclaim throughout Europe after being exiled from the United States for her pro-Soviet sympathies.
Died in an automobile accident in Nice, France, when she was a passenger in an Amilcar. Her silk scarf, draped around her neck, became entangled around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, breaking her neck.
In 1987, she was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame.

«If I had been the Virgin Mary, I would have said: 'No!'»

Margaret Smith*

* Six-time Emmy Award winning standup comic, actor, writer and producer. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Smith is known for her deadpan and often acerbic delivery, reminiscent of Eve Arden. She was a writer and producer for The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

«There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.»

Ansel Adams*

* (Western Addition, San Francisco, California 20-Feb.-1902 / Monterey, California 22-Apr.-1984)
Photographer and environmentalist. With Fred Archer, Adams developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs.

«Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.»

John F. Kennedy*

* (Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S. 29-May-1917 / Dallas, Texas, U.S. 22-Nov-1963).
35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. Notable events that occurred during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race—by initiating Project Apollo (which later culminated in the moon landings), the building of the Berlin Wall, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and the increased US involvement in the Vietnam War.

«The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent.»

Erich Fromm*

* ( Frankfurt, Germany 23-Mar-1900 / Muralto, Switzerland 16-Mar-1980) German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist.

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives."

William A. Foster*

* (Garfield Heights, Ohio, U.S. 17-Feb-1915 / Okinawa, Japan 2-May-1945).
United States Marine who received the Medal of Honor for his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty" during World War II during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (Copenhagen, Denmark 5-May-1813 / 11-Nov-1855).
Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology and philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking, and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment.

«If the Stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.»

Ralph Waldo Emerson*

* (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. 25-May-1803 / Concord, Massachusetts 27-Apr-1882).
Essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.

«I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark.»

Dick Gregory*

* (Saint Louis, Missouri, U.S. 12-Oct-1932).
Comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, conspiracy theorist, and entrepreneur.

«Without music, life would be a mistake.»

Friedrich Nietzsche

«A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.»

Walt Whitman*

* (West Hills, Huntington, Long Island, New York, U.S. 31-May-1819 / Camden, New Jersey, U.S. 26-Mar-1892).
Poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.

«The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.»

Epicurus*

* (Samos, Greece February 341 BC / Athens, Greece 270 BC)
Ancient Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of Epicurus's 300 written works remain. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators.

«The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.»

Jean Cocteau