179 – “Being born elite in the US gives you a constellation of privileges that very few people in the world have ever experienced. Being born poor in the US gives you disadvantages unlike anything in Western Europe and Japan and Canada.”

–David Levine

See Source Notes for further reading on this subject if you are interested.

154 – “Poverty is not a character failing or a lack of motivation… Poverty is a shortage of money.”

–Barbara Ehrenreich

106 – “That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be”

– P C Hodgell [Often misattributed, see note]

102 – “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”

– Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States of America

101 – “Democracy is not a tearing down; it is a building up. It is not denial of the divine right of kings; it supplements that same with the assertion of the divine right of all men. It does not destroy; it fulfills. It is the consummation of all theories of government, the spirit of which all the nations of the earth must yield. It is the great constructive course of the ages.”

– Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States of America

83 – “May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

– Neil Gaiman