Just the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks, waiting for the post office to open. I was enjoying a chocolatey cafe mocha when it occurred to me that to drink a mocha is to gulp down the entire history of the New World. From the Spanish exportation of Aztec cacao, and the Dutch invention of the chemical process for making cocoa, on down to the capitalist empire of Hershey, PA, and the lifestyle marketing of Seattle’s Starbucks, the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much. -Sarah Vowell

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why. -James Thurber

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. -Naguib Mahfouz

Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change. -Harriet Lerner

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. -Jimi Hendrix

Your voice dries up if you don’t use it. -Patti Page

Through others, we become ourselves. -Lev Vygotsky

Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except the best. -Henry van Dyke

We have probed the earth, excavated it, burned it, ripped things from it, buried things in it, chopped down its forests, leveled its hills, muddied its waters, and dirtied its air. That does not fit my definition of a good tenant. If we were here on a month-to-month basis, we would have been evicted long ago. -Rose Bird

The worst thing that can happen in a democracy — as well as in an individual’s life — is to become cynical about the future and lose hope: that is the end, and we cannot let that happen. -Hillary Clinton