"All appears to change when we change."
Henri-Frédéric Amiel

"If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it."
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), letter to James Lewis, Jr., May 9, 1798

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha

"The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears."
Ellen Goodman (1941 - )