Quotations

"It took me years, but letting go of religion has been the most profound wake up of my life. I feel I now look at the world not as a child, but as an adult. I see what's bad and it's really bad. But I also see what is beautiful, what is wonderful. And I feel so deeply appreciative that I am alive. How dare the religious use the term 'born again.' That truly describes freethinkers who've thrown off the shackles of religion so much better!"

— Julia Sweeney, American actress, comedian, born October 10, 1959

"It's not for me - religion. It seems like a redundancy for a poet."

— May Swenson, American poet, died December 4, 1989

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another."

— Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, born November 30, 1667

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible."

— Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish satirist, born November 30, 1667

"The sun, each second, transforms 4 million tons of itself into light. Human generosity is possible only because at the center of the solar system is a magnificent stellar generosity that pours forth free energy day and night without stop and without the slightest hesitation."

— Brian Swimme, American professor, cosmologist, born 1950

"In music one must think with the heart and feel with the brain."

— George Szell, Hungarian-American conductor, born June 7, 1897

"Conductors must give unmistakable and suggestive signals to the orchestra - not choreography to the audience."

— George Szell, Hungarian-American conductor, died July 30, 1970

"The joy of writing. The power of preserving. Revenge of a mortal hand."

— Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet, died February 1, 2012

"I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order."

— Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet, born July 2, 1923

"No day copies yesterday, no two nights will teach what bliss is in precisely the same way, with precisely the same kisses."

— Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet, born July 2, 1923

"Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous 'I don't know.'"

— Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet, born July 2, 1923

"I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems."

— Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet, born July 2, 1923

"Nothing's a gift, it's all on loan."

— Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet, born July 2, 1923

"The mountain teaches me a lot of things. It makes me realize how trivial my personal problems are. It also teaches me that life should not be taken for granted."

— Junko Tabei, Japanese mountain-climber, first woman to reach Mount Everest, May 16, 1975