Author Archives: Laura Dobson

“Truth is the only safe ground to stand on… We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815 – 1902), women’s rights activist, born on this day

WWI Armistice Day “November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy.. all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of theContinue reading “Thought for the day, Monday 11th November”

“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scrambleContinue reading “Thought for the day, Sunday 10th November”

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every heroContinue reading “Thought for the day, Saturday 9th November”

“Now you are beginning to think for yourself instead of letting others think for you. That’s the beginning of wisdom.” From Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1900 – 1949), born on this day

“In the light, the earth remains our first and our last love. Our brothers are breathing under the same sky as we; justice is a living thing. Now is born that strange joy which helps one live and die, and which we shall never again postpone to a later time.” From The Rebel (1951) byContinue reading “Thought for the day, Thursday 7th November”

“My work is loving the world.Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—equal seekers of sweetness.Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let mekeep my mind on what matters,which is my work,which is mostly standingContinue reading “Thought for the day, Wednesday 6th November”

“To love. To be loved.To never forget your own insignificance.To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you.To seek joy in the saddest places.To pursue beauty to its lair.To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple.To respect strength, never power.Above all, to watch.To try andContinue reading “Thought for the day, Tuesday 5th November”

“Doubt can serve you well, if you train it. It must become a way of knowing, a good critic. Every time doubt wants to spoil something for you, ask why it finds something ugly and demand proofs. Thus tested by you, doubt may become bewildered and embarrassed, even aggressive. But don’t give in, demand reasonsContinue reading “Thought for the day, Monday 4th November”

“I have seen the sun break throughto illuminate a small fieldfor a while, and gone my wayand forgotten it. But that was thepearl of great price, the one field that hadtreasure in it. I realise nowthat I must give all that I haveto possess it. Life is not hurryingon to a receding future, nor hankeringContinue reading “Thought for the day, Sunday 3rd November”