L Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with L. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Letter from Mr. B: Why does a back scratch feel better coming from somebody else than if you do it yourself?”
“Letter from The Mountaintop (Sonnet 2252)
Cosmos is colored,
all color is kin.
Scarlight makes the mind,
sunlight makes the skin.
Life is nonbinary,
existence is nonbiblical.
When 'sacred' is anagram for 'scared',
to sin is our Earth Gospel.
Churchill and Columbus belong in the jungle,
loudmouth karens belong in mental institution.
Those who've been to the mountaintop,
grow too human for the dunghills of dogma.
Here at the mountaintop, we're just humans -
no black, no white, no believer, nonbeliever -
here at the mountaintop, we're each other's keeper.”
Source: Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper
“Letter make words. Words make stories. And stories can be changed with strong enough magic.”
Source: Rapunzel Cuts Loose
“Letter To An Immortal
They're not going to understand the lightning in your veins. They'll expect you to apologize for the wildflowers you've planted in your bones. You planted them there because even bones should grow flowers. They will question the mountain ranges around your heart, say that they should be let in, say that you're not allowed to have borders. They are going to want apologies for the rivers and brooks flowing through your veins and for the way you call to eagles, for how you swim with elephants. They'll expect you to make yourself understood, as if you owe them that. Everyone thinks that forces of nature don't come in human form; they'll want you to explain yourself. You won't have to, you don't have to. The first time it rained; it is they who learnt to build houses and to take cover; it is not the rain which stopped to study their patterns. The first time flowers grew out of cave walls, it is they who marvelled; no flower has said, that it must have grown in the wrong place at the wrong time! It is they who have died atop mountain ranges, no mountain has fallen for anyone! The very first time lightning hit a tree, they were given the gift of fire. The first time a man drowned in a river, they learnt of its currents and depths, but also, they chartered maps to new worlds beyond their own horizons. You are your own territory, not born on account of them but born as the planets are born, born as nature itself is born. Your dreams are the blueprints, the stories you are woven from. Let them learn, let them move according to the lands and the skies you inhabit.”
“Letter to Law Enforcement
Every field of human endeavor has its own unique problem. The problem with science is lack of warmth. The problem with philosophy is lack of empathy. The problem with religion is lack of reason. The problem with politics is lack of expertise. And the problem with law enforcement is not corruption, but an absolute denial of that corruption, and until you acknowledge that many of your officers are corrupt and prejudiced to the neck, you can never in a million years build a healthy relationship with the people.
Prejudices thrive on biases, and biases are a part of our psyche - of the human psyche, and no matter what we do, we cannot erase them from our mind - but we do have the ability to be aware of them, and only when we are aware of them, can we choose whether or not to be driven by them. However, when you don't even acknowledge that you have biases, that you are filled with prejudice, then you are inadvertently choosing not to accept the root of all the mistakes committed by you and your fellow officers in the line of duty.
A civilian may choose to stay biased and prejudiced all their life, but you as a defender of the people - as a defender of their rights, their security, their serenity - do not have the luxury to let your biases, to let your prejudices come in the way of your duty, for the moment they do, you the keeper of law and order, turn into the very cause of disorder.
Therefore, it's not enough for an officer of the law to have combat training and legal knowledge, it is also imperative that you learn about biases, that you learn about the fears, insecurities and instinctual tendencies of the human mind. An officer of the law without an understanding of biases, is like a ten year old with a knife - they may feel that they have power, but they have no clue as to the real life implications of that power. Remember my friend, power that doesn't help the people, is not power but pandemic.
Your combat training doesn't make you a police officer, for when enraged even an ordinary civilian can take down ten police officers - your knowledge of law doesn't make you an officer of the law, for when pushed even a mediocre college student can defeat an army of elite legal minds - what makes you a police officer is your absolute acceptance of your role in society - the role of selfless servants. Once you accept the role of selfless servants wholeheartedly, people are bound to trust you.
My brave, conscientious officers of the law, if you want people to trust you, don't use the phrase "police are your friends", for it only makes you sound authoritarian, egotistical and condescending - instead, remind them "police are humans too" - acknowledge your mistakes and work towards correcting them, so that you can truly become the Caretaker of People, which is the very definition of COP.”
Source: Boldly Comes Justice: Sentient Not Silent
“Letter to My Soldiers
I am only the beginning - the beginning of a new kind of humans - humans who belong to not one culture, but many cultures - humans who speak not one language, but many languages - humans who study scriptures and science with equal enthusiasm, yet pledge allegiance to neither, and know how to use both in the benefit of humanity - humans who aim for neither belief nor disbelief, but warmth and understanding - humans who are more concerned with the real hard problem of inhumanity, than the outdated hard problem of consciousness - humans who sacrifice their life treating the real hard question of hate, rather than the mythical hard question of god. I am only the beginning - the first spark, if you may - the best are yet to come.”
Source: Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets
“Letter to The Braindead (Naskaristana 2532)
The only reason the west makes such
a song and dance about antisemitism,
is not because it's a human rights issue,
but because it's the only narrative where
the colonizers emerge as the good guys -
but place indigenous populations
at the center of history, and every last
white heroic propaganda collapses in dust.
Think about it for a while, if you're not braindead -
how come french resistance, polish resistance, all
belong to history's mainstream fight against tyranny,
yet you still stutter to call the pilgrims as parasites,
british monarchy as brutes, and the vatican as vultures!”
Source: Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot
“Letter to the committee in charge of the celebration of the centennial of the American Constitution. I have always regarded that Constitution as the most remarkable work known to me in modern times to have been produced by the human intellect, at a single stroke (so to speak), in its application to political affairs.”
“Letter to the tech giants:
When fame and abundance kiss somebody’s feet before that person is wise enough, he or she is very likely to lose track of what’s necessity and what’s luxury. And modern society is filled with examples of such intelligent stupidity – stupidity that is carried out by apparently smart humans. Because being smart is not the same as being wise. The world has enough smartness, but not enough wisdom to bring that smartness into proper productive practice – and I mean productive practice not sophisticated practice – there is a difference. A person smart enough to visualize a Falcon rocket engine can easily pinpoint the locations of various organizations that spread terrorism, yet the person chooses to explore the space further instead of prioritizing the technological advantages to first fix real issues of the human society that inflict harm to the humans every walk of the way.
The world is a miserable place not because we have lack of resources, but because those who have an abundance of resources do not have the slightest idea of true human need. The resources needed for colonizing Mars if put to proper practice can fix the world’s global warming issues – it can fix the world’s climate change issues – it can fix the world’s terrorism issues, yet people are more interested in the pompous idea of living in Mars for whatever reason, instead of paying attention to improving human condition on earth. I am not against technological advancement, for I am a scientist, but my soul aches when I see smart people are dumb enough to chase after illusory glory of doing something different and innovative instead of focusing the powers of their soul on cleaning up the misery business on earth. You can, yet you don’t. Why?
Smartness without wisdom is stupidity. You are smart – yes indeed – but I am sorry – you are stupid at the same time. How can you dream of having a cheese burger on Mars when your own kind on Earth is suffering! How can you think of taking rich kids into the orbit just so they can admire the beauty of earth from the heavens, when that very earth is infested with the primordial evils of human character! Awaken the human within you my friend, and pay attention. Awaken the human within and let it consume all the miseries from the world that you live in. Say a member of your family falls ill, would you ignore his or her misery completely just because you want to make life more comfortable for others than it already is, or would you first try everything in your capacity in order to heal your loved one!
Be wise my friend, for it is not enough to be smart. You are smart – there is no doubt about that – so utilize that smartness for humanity and heal your own kind. Heal your kind with your capacity my friend. It is wailing for healers – not some delusional faith healers, but real tangible healers. Would you not do anything! Would you not give your soul to fix the broken soul of this world! Arise my friend, Awake my friend and work for humanity, not to make it sophisticated, but to make it peaceful first. Remember, humanity first, then everything else. Peace first, sophistication later. Harmony first, luxury later.”
“Letter two
You are becoming a ritual.
I write to you the way my mother folds clothes soft, deliberate,
half-aware of some absence that once wore them.
I hope you read slowly.
I hope you read like you’re scared to reach the end of me.”
Source: A Shelf of Things I Never Said
“Letter writing is an excellent way of slowing down this lunatic helterskelter universe long enough to gather one’s thoughts”
“Letter writing is the only device combining solitude with good company.”
“Letter writing was clearly important to Reagan. Even as president he kept dashing off letters to friends, pen pals, media people, statesmen, critics, and the kind of people who write to presidents never expecting a reply.”
“Letter-writing I imagine is counted as 'work' from which you must abstain, and I scribble this letter simply from the self-satisfied notion that you will like to hear from me. You see, I have asked no questions, which are the torture-screws of correspondence. Hence you have nothing to answer.”
Source: Life and letters
“Letter-writing on the part of a busy man or woman is the quintessence of generosity.”
“Lettering creates readable art that comes to life, displaying a quirky, whimsical nature.”
Source: The Ultimate Brush Lettering Guide: A Complete Step-by-Step Workbook to Jump Start Modern Calligraphy Skills
“Lettering is a precise art and strictly subject to tradition. The 'New Art ' notion that you can make letters whatever shapes you like,is as foolish as the notion, if anyone has such a notion, that you can make houses any shapes you like. You can't, unless you live all by yourself on a desert island.”
“Lettering should be invisible. You shouldn't notice it, unless it is a determined piece of storytelling in graphic design. Whether handmade or digital, the lettering should be easy on the eye and well placed. It should help tell the story and do nothing to get in the way of it.”
“Letters always frustrate me with what's left out.”
Source: Blue Taxis: Stories about Africa
“Letters and diaries sometimes bring us close to grand moments or touching scenes in the history of Euro-Americans, but harkening back to the thoughts and feelings of the less powerful, we meet only silence”
Source: Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs
“Letters are above all useful as a means of expressing the ideal self; and no other method of communication is quite so good for this purpose. In letters we can reform without practice, beg without humiliation, snip and shape embarrassing experiences to the measure of our own desires.”
Source: The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick
“Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.”
“Letters are expectation packaged in an envelope.”
Source: The feminine eye
“Letters are false really - they are expressions of the way you wish you were instead of the way you are.”
Source: Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters
“Letters are largely written to get things out of your system.”
Source: The Fourteenth Chronicle: Letters and Diaries of John Dos Passos
“Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine.”
Source: Notebooks: Selections Edited by Geoffrey Keynes and Brian Hill
“Letters are meaningless unless put together correctly. Words are worthless unless backed by truth. Sentences are handed out and judged accordingly, but only genuinely honest men or women can create writings that change the world forever.”
“Letters are no matter of indifference; they are generally a very positive curse.”
Source: Emma
“letters are not the first, but the last step in the progression from barbarism to civilisation.”
Source: Correspondence
“Letters are signs of things, symbols of words, whose power is so great that without a voice they speak to us the words of the absent; for they introduce words by the eye, not by the ear.”
“letters are so much easier than living. One can give one's best.”
“Letters are something from you. It's a different kind of intention than writing an e-mail.”
“Letters are the real curse of my existence. I hate to write them: I have to. If I don't, there they are - the great guilty gates barring my way.”
Source: The Katherine Mansfield notebooks
“Letters are things, not pictures of things.”
Source: Autobiography
“letters are venerable; and the telephone valiant, for the journey is a lonely one, and if bound together by notes and telephones we went in company, perhaps - who knows? - we might talk by the way.”
Source: Selected Works of Virginia Woolf
“Letters couldn't care less whether what is written with them is true or false.”
“Letters crossing in the post, unfamiliar tunes heard three times in one day, the way that blows of fate descend upon the same bowed shoulders, and the beams of good fortune glow perpetually upon the blessed. Fairy tales, as I said, are lived out daily. There is far more going on in the world than we ever imagine.”
“Letters do love one another. However, due to their anatomical differences, some letters have a hard time achieving intimacy.”
Source: Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students
“Letters form a by-path of literature, a charming, but occasional, retreat for people of cultivated leisure.”
Source: Compromises
“Letters had always defeated distance, but with the coming of e-mail, time seemed to be vanquished as well.”
Source: Yours Ever: People and Their Letters
“Letters have time, time costs nothing in these parts-let's return to the melons and peaches of Afghanistan.”
Source: All the Roads Are Open: The Afghan Journey
“Letters have to pass two tests before they can be classed as good: they must express the personality both of the writer and of the recipient.”
“Letters of friendship require no study.”
Source: Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious
“Letters of the condemned. Last words scratched on a cell’s wall. To write like that.”
“Letters remind us that when we write we can bring back the best of times, even make time stand still, if only for a few minutes.”
“Letters should be easy and natural, and convey to the persons to whom we send them just what we should say to the persons if we were with them.”
“Letters should be easy and natural.”
“Letters to absence can a voice impart, And lend a tongue when distance gags the heart.”
“Letters to the editors of English and American newspapers often contain expressions of horror about the new terms that creep into the language, and these expressions are usually accompanied by dire predictions about ruination of the mother tongue.”
Source: Word Play: What Happens When People Talk
“Letters, Will thought, were like books: they were mostly about love.”
Source: Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms