If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.
-- Frederick Douglass

On Virginia Woolf:

"In Moments of Being (public library) — the posthumous collection of her autobiographical writings — she writes:

A great part of every day is not lived consciously. One walks, eats, sees things, deals with what has to be done; the broken vacuum cleaner; ordering dinner; writing orders to Mabel; washing; cooking dinner; bookbinding. When it is a bad day the proportion of non-being is much larger.

In her 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway — part love letter to these moments of being, part lamentation about the proportion of non-being we choose without knowing we are choosing — she locates the key to righting the ratio in “the power of taking hold of experience, of turning it round, slowly, in the light.”"
https://www.themarginalian.org/2025/02/12/virginia-woolf-moments-of-being/#:~:text=In%20Moments%20of,in%20the%20light.%E2%80%9D

It is from the love of humanity that we are revolutionaries: it is not our fault if history has forced on us this distressing necessity.
-- Errico Malatesta

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

“When adversity strikes, you have two choices: Let the adversity define, destroy, or strengthen you. Your reaction is what will determine your destiny.” ~ Serena Williams

The liberal government of Spain could have rendered the fascist elements powerless long ago. Instead it compromised and dallied.
-- Buenaventura Durruti

This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything...

Rights aren't rights if someone can take them away. They're privileges. That's all we've ever had in this country, is a bill of temporary privileges.
-- George Carlin

"Er..." Zarquon said, "hello. Er, look, I'm sorry I'm a bit late. I've had the most ghastly time, all sorts of things cropping up at the last moment."
He seemed nervous of the expectant awed hush. He cleared his throat.
"Er, how are we for time?" he said, "have I just got a min—"
And so the Universe ended.

“We should all start texting each other like old timey explorers. ‘Dearest friend, I have survived another week, the horrors persist.’”

The philosophy of anarchism is included in the word "Liberty"; yet it is comprehensive enough to include all things else that are conducive to progress.
-- Lucy Parsons

England is a prison. The variety of subtleties in the laws preserved by the sword are bolts, bars, and doors of the prison; the lawyers are the jailors; and poor men are the prisoners.
-- Gerrard Winstanley

Love the simplicity of this quote/advice attributed to composer John Cage.

"Begin anywhere."

Great for any time you feel stuck or overwhelmed. Especially fitting for our times.

via https://mastodon.sdf.org/@Lichtenbergian/114144336931736871

A quotation from William Feather

An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t. It’s knowing where to go to find out what you need to know, and it’s knowing how to use the information once you get it.

William Feather (1889-1981) American publisher, author
(Attributed)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/feather-william/1479…

I mean, "chaos" is a meaning of the word, but it's not a meaning that has any relevance to social thought. Anarchy as a social philosophy has never meant "chaos" -- in fact, anarchists have typically believed in a highly organized society, just one that's organized democratically from below.
-- Noam Chomsky

Direct action is the logical, consistent method of anarchism.
-- Emma Goldman

The enemy is very strong because, for centuries past, he has made his living from theft and violence: he has the accumulated experience of that, he has overcome internal crises and now he puts on a new face.
-- Nestor Makhno

“I am learning every day to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire me and not terrify me. I can even ask for help! Not feeling that I have to know everything… that’s where the growth comes in, in the not knowing.” ~ Tracee Ellis Ross

In ancient times cats were worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this.