“Why did all that we’re seeing have to happen on our watch? Why now, and why us? I would suggest that there is a reason why the things we are witnessing are happening in our exact time on this planet. Because we are the ones who are made for this moment. We are not in the situation we’re facing because we can’t hadle it, we’re in the situation that we’re facing precisely because we can. For some reason that only the universe knows, we are exactly where we are supposed to be in the flow of human existence. It will be up to each of us to figure out what we each uniquely can bring to this moment when the planet and species need us most.”

— Isabel Wilkerson, Wellesley commencement address 2025

“Unfortunately the blindness and madness of a society that is shaken to its very roots by the storms of passion and greed for power make the fully effective use of political negotiation impossible. Men want to negotiate for peace, and strive to do so, but their fear is greater than their good will. They do not dare to take serious and bold initiatives for peace. Fear of losing face, fear of the propaganda consequences of apparent ‘weakness,’ make it impossible for them to do what is really courageous: to take firm steps toward world peace. When they take one step forward they immediately tell the world about it and then take four steps backward. We are all walking backward toward a precipice. We know the precipice is there, but we assert that we are all the while going forward. This is because the world in its madness is guided by military men, who are the blindest of the blind.”

— Thomas Merton’s August, 1962 letter to Shinzo Hamai, mayor of Hiroshima, Japan.

“Safety and security don’t just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.”

Nelson Mandela

“Nonviolence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak. . . . Nonviolence is hard work.”

Cesar Chavez

“Peace is made with our hands. It is not only built by the powerful with their choices and their international treaties, we too can build peace, in our homes, in the family, among neighbors, in our workplaces, in the neighborhoods where we live.”

Pope Francis

“Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.
You cannot tell always by looking what is happening.
More than half a tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.
Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet.
Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.
Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden.
Gnaw in the dark and use the sun to make sugar.”

Marge Piercey, “The Seven of Pentacles,” Circles on the Water

“People are aware that they cannot continue in the same old way but are immobilized because they cannot imagine an alternative. We need a vision that recognizes that we are at one of the great turning points in human history when the survival of our planet and the restoration of our humanity require a great sea change in our ecological, economic, political, and spiritual values.”

Grace Lee Boggs

“We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope.”

James Baldwin, A Rap on Race

“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.”

Wangari Maathai

“O let America be America again –
The land that never has been yet –
And yet must be –”

Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again”

“All the changes in one’s environment are brought about by one’s hands.”

Maria Montessori