“Hell is empty, the devils are all here.”  --Shakespeare     

“The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with the bone.”  --Shakespeare  

“Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage. It is a tale told by an idiot. Full of Sound and Fury, signifying nothing.”  --Shakespeare   

"With awe and wonder you look around, recognizing the preciousness of the earth, the sanctity of every human being on the planet, the ultimate unity and interdependence of all beings - somos todos un pais. Love swells in your chest and shoots out of your heart chakra, linking you to everyone/everything. ... You share a category of identity wider than any social position or racial label. This conocimiento motivates you to work actively to see that no harm comes to people, animals, ocean - to take up spiritual activism and

the work of healing.  --Gloria E. Anzaldua, _now let us shift ... the path of conocimiento ... inner work, public acts_ (2008)

"[Alexander von] Humboldt revolutionized the way we see the natural world. He found connections everywhere. Nothing, not even the tiniest organism, was looked at on its own. “In this great chain of causes and effects,” Humboldt said, “no single fact can be considered in isolation.” With this insight, he invented the web of life, the concept of nature as we know it today.

"When nature is perceived as a web, its vulnerability also becomes obvious. Everything hangs together. If one thread is pulled, the whole tapestry may unravel."  --Andrea Wulf

"In the autocracy that is taking shape from the executive branch in 2025, there is no perceptible ideological logic. There are whiffs of nativism, manifest destiny, and isolationism borrowed from pre-1945 American history. But greed, an addictive desire for fame, and a wide enthusiasm for the theatrical capacity to dominate the public arena with nostalgic myths — a talent Donald Trump undeniably possesses — are at the center of Trumpism. Fame and wealth are Trump’s only currencies, aside from a perverse pleasure in humiliating individuals and celebrating cruelty, primarily in the acts of detention and deportation, and threats of legal prosecution without just cause. There is no idealism except some extreme version of Ayn Rand’s glorification of individualism, selfishness, and self-interest. Whatever Trump may stand for, it is a far cry from the traditional ideals of American democracy and a pluralist society — a “melting pot” of sorts — based in part on a long history of immigration from many different continents and cultures.”  --Leon Botstein

 “Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being,”  --Rumi