To me, consensus seems to be: The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner 'I stand for consensus?' - Margaret Thatcher

I always thought 'Why doesnt someone do something?' then I realized I was somebody. - Unknown

"It was a chance for us to show we are an independent country, with its own convictions, principles and a policy that respects the international situation," he said. "We believe in the United Nations, we believe in peace in the world." - Jean Chretien on the decision to not to go to war in Iraq

It will be a great day when the schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber. - Northern Sun has copywrite, not sure who said it.

Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The results of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital, the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of the legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights. -- Albert Einstein, 1949

We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it. - St. Thomas Aquinas - 1200's

We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around the house for fuel when we should use nature's inexhaustible sources of energy - sun, wind and tide. I'll put my money on sun and solar energy for power ... and hope we don't have to wait until the oil and coal runs out before we tap it. - Thomas Edison - 1931

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. - Margaret Atwood

A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business. - Eric Hoffer

It is the fundamental unfairness of parenthood that if we do our jobs well, the deepest bond we are given will walk out the door with a wave over the shoulder. - Robin Wall Kimmerer

puhpowee

If we gaze deep, deep into nature, we will find the solutions for everything... - Albert Einstein

Science is far from a perfect instrument of knowledge. It's just the best we have. In this respect, as in many others, it's like democracy. - Carl Sagan

When we see it, we understand it. And when we understand it, we care about it. And when we care about it, we'll do something to help save it. - Dr. Suzanne Simard

Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. - Chief Seattle