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Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic Evolution^SM

Quotes I've always loved a good quote. Since I was a teenager, in the early 70s, I started noting notable sayings on little index cards for quick reference. Over the years I've accumulated hundreds of these little cards so I hope to post some of the better ones, here, as time permits...

Click Here for my Quote Quiz page...

Click Here Quote of the Quarter page...

"Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!"

Jack London

"San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories." "The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." "I believe that when I am dead, I am dead. I believe that with my death I am just as much obliterated as the last mosquito you and I squashed."

• Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means "First, do no harm."
  (attributed to Galen of Pergamon - a prominent Greek physician)
• Don't be evil (Google's corporate code of conduct, first introduced around 2000)

Primitive Thinking

THE FAMILY THAT FLEES TOGETHER, TREES TOGETHER. Originally aired February 9, 2001 21 Year old Cy Jarvis (CJ) being interviewed by Alex Blumberg (AB) about his parents (Ronald and Eileen Jarvis) and their six children being on the run from law enforcement for seven years in the 1990s - at one time living in a tree-house, at another on a boat, all the while trying to stay true to their natural lifestyle...

AB: Eileen tells me that their years on the run have effected each of their children differently. And once it gets dark, while she and the girls go and prepare dinner, I talked to her youngest boy, Cy, who's 21, and who's outlook differs quite a bit from his sisters and mother's, about what he's learned since the family first fled West Virginia.

CJ: We really didn't know how people were, and, people are basically beasts. And, uh, 'cuz most people aren't very friendly, of course, you know we were lucky there in Shady Side [Marina in Maine, USA], a lot of them people were basically friendly people, they were primitive thinkers, but, but they were real friendly, and they were nice people and most of 'em were just out to help, you know, instead of out to get ya, they were out to help ya. And uh, you know like during winter time we didn't have no money, and uh, we didn't basically have no walls around us because they were so rotten, and uh, people were all the time coming around all the time offering us heaters and blankets and all kinds of stuff, you know. So it was nice of 'em, you know. All the people around they were great. And uh, you know, like I say, they were basically primitive thinkers but they were really nice people.

AB: What do you mean by that?

CJ: Primitive thinkers?

AB: Yeah.

CJ: I mean, ah, ah, what I mean by that is they don't mind, that they don't mind, you know, eatin' meat, smoking cigarettes, and they don't mind like running over that animal that crosses the road, and they don't mind shooting something, they don't mind killing something, they don't mind driving their diesel boats all over the place and spilling motor oil in the water. And the words they say, they're pretty much foul, and uh, the stuff they discuss don't need to be discussed around kids and family, and don't need to be discussed period. That's what I mean by primitive thinkers not really understanding what right is and what wrong is - they don't know the difference between the two.

I love this one my sister Kelly sent to me:

" ... when you come back from the Third World to the West - the U.S. in particular - you are struck by the narrowing of thought and understanding, the limited nature of legitimate discussion, the separation of people from each other. It's startling how stultifying it feels, since our opportunities are so vastly greater here."

"I'm not going to let you tell me who I am,   I'm going to tell you who I am." - Maysoon Zayid   (Maysoon is a Palestinian-American Muslim with cerebral palsy who works as a stand-up comedian in New York City. She gave me permission to use this quote from her 11-17-2003 interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!)

"The United States of Amnesia: No memory, no context, no background..." - David Barsamian, producer of Alternative Radio while being interviewed about the capture of Saddam Hussein by Sam Fuqua of KGNU radio (08:46 am, December 15, 2003)

During the summer of 2005 my friend Charlie Oriez, and environmental activist, was nearing death at the relatively young age of 53. At a party for him, on July 30th, I asked if he had any advise for environmentalists. Although it was 5 pm and Charlie was weakening from his treatments he didn't hestitate to remind me, and the rest of us, to do what Ed Abbey had told all of us so many years ago: To be half-time environmentalists so as to avoid burn-out. I then asked him if he had any advise for people who were not environmentalists and Charlie replied as quickly, "Tell 'em to drop dead!"
- Roger J. Wendell

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