1124 – “You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!”

-Albus Dumbledore in J K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

1120 – “She Did Not Need Much”, a poem by Starra Neely Blade

She did not need much,
wanted very little.
A kind word, sincerity,
fresh air, clean water,
a garden, kisses,
books to read,
sheltering arms, a cosy bed,
and to love and be loved in return.

-Starra Neely Blade

1114 – “The single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make fresh trees, and the rapidity of the growth is equal to its extent.”

-Frederick W Farber

1099 – “Intention is a universal language. It is the law of gravity between souls. Try, if you must, to fool the stars. Or each other. But this is an agreement four billion years old. Because nothing can be kept from the salt in the sea, from the push and pull of right and wrong. Because it has never been about what you say, but where you speak from.”

-Mia Hollow

1061 – “A friend loves you for your intelligence, a mistress for your charm, but your family’s love is unreasoning; you were born into it and are of its flesh and blood. Nevertheless it can irritate you more than any group of people in the world.”

-André Maurois

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, may your families not irritate you much!

1058 – “Everyone is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something.”

-anonymous

1025 – “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

-Nelson Mandela

1013 – “We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversations with, people may seem like such a simple obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk.”

-Thomas Moore [Attributed]

1005 – Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan on Humans and Animals

“Humans – who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals – have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and ‘animals’ is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them – without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.”

-Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

996 – “A typical neuron makes about ten thousand connections to neighboring neurons. Given that billions of neurons, this means there are as many connections in a single cubic centimeter of brain tissue as there are stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.”

-David Eagleman