Notably Quotable: “If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is…”

“If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.”

— Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

*****

“It is time for us to simply realize that this country will not heal — all that a country is a collection of people — people heal when there’s deep truth-telling,” Marianne Williamson said. “We need to recognize when it comes to the economic gap between blacks and whites in America, it does come from a great injustice that has never been dealt with. That great injustice has had to do with the fact that there was 250 years of slavery followed by another hundred years of domestic terrorism.”

— Marianne Williamson, second democratic debate (7/30/19)

*****

“Finally, while we would not sink to name-calling in the Trumpian manner — or ruefully point out that he failed to spell the congressman’s name correctly (it’s Cummings, not Cumming) — we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are “good people” among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post. Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.”

— Baltimore Sun, editorial on Donald Trump’s racist attacks on Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD

*****

“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.”
― William Faulkner
*****

“The corporations that profit from permanent war need us to be afraid. Fear stops us from objecting to government spending on a bloated military. Fear means we will not ask unpleasant questions of those in power. Fear permits the government to operate in secret. Fear means we are willing to give up our rights and liberties for promises of security. The imposition of fear ensures that the corporations that wrecked the country cannot be challenged. Fear keeps us penned in like livestock.” 

― Chris Hedges, The Death of the Liberal Class

*****

“Nobody ever listened to me until they didn’t know who I was.”

— Banksy, the elusive street artist.

*****

“There are lots of good reasons for the courts to prosecute individual cases, but justice will not be done until might is no longer right, and power that includes the power of being heard and valued is distributed equally.”

— Rebecca Solnit, In Patriarchy No One Can Hear You Scream: Rebecca Solnit on Jeffrey Epstein and the Silencing Machine

*****

“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”

― Benjamin Franklin