“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”

- Noam Chomsky

“This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath.”

– Margaret Atwood

“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. ”

– Lao Tzu

“We hope. We despair. We hope. We despair. That is what governs us. We have a bipolar system.”

– Maira Kalman

“Imagine that each of us felt suddenly called to wonder in this moment, what does the world need from me? What are my gifts?”

— Lynn Ungar

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.”

— Brené Brown

“Traditionally, life has been divided into two main parts: a period of learning followed by a period of working. Very soon, this traditional model will become utterly obsolete,”

– Yuval Noah Harari

“Love doesn’t have goals or benchmarks or blueprints, but it does have a purpose. The purpose is not to change the people we love, but to give them what they need to thrive.”

– Alison Gopnik

“The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made.”

– John Schaar

“The poets and philosophers were right in their intimations of an open, creative universe. Transformation, innovation, evolution—these are the natural responses to crisis.”

– Marilyn Ferguson

“In each of us, there is a little voice that knows exactly which way to go. And I learned very early to listen to it, even though it has caused so much grief and havoc, and I think that is the only answer.”

– Alice Walker

“Hope remains, only in the most difficult task of all: to reconsider everything from the ground up, so as to shape a living society inside a dying one.”

– Albert Camus

“It’s okay not to know. It’s okay to be vulnerable. No one has all the answers. We value and learn from the questions and the asking.”

– Marc Lesser

“Kindness eases change.

Love quiets fear.

And a sweet and powerful.”

– Octavia E. Butler

“None of us know what will happen. Don’t spend time worrying about it. Make the most beautiful thing you can. Try to do that every day. That’s it.”

— Laurie Anderson

“It’s exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful.”

– Adrienne Rich