The following is an incomplete list, in no particular order, of books that have shaped my mind over the years:
If I read a book and it makes my whole body feel so cold no fire can ever warm me I know that is poetry.
If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
— Emily Dickinson
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu
Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
— Bertrand Russell
We assume some of the most peculiar and temporary of our late advantages as natural, permanent, and
to be depended on, and we lay our plans accordingly… On this sandy and false foundation we scheme
for social improvement and dress our political platforms…
— John Maynard Keynes
I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out
in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom
of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
— Jack London
