Some 9.13 Principles & Values

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good. Thomas Paine  

Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!  Anne Frank

No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand. Bertolt Brecht  

2. Meanness is Bad

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. Mark Twain  

Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable. Jodie Foster

3. War is Bad

War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Bruce Springsteen  

War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes. Thomas Paine  

All war must be just the killing of strangers against whom you feel no personal animosity; strangers whom, in other circumstances, you would help if you found them in trouble, and who would help you if you needed it. Mark Twain  

4. Peace is Good

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace. John Lennon  

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. Albert Einstein  

5. Prejudice is Bad

All that I care to know is that a man is a human being--that is enough for me; he can't be any worse. Mark Twain 

Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine. Whoopi Goldberg  

Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood. Josephine Baker  

6. Equality is Good

A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess. Philip Randolph  

Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman? Sojourner Truth

7. Solidarity is Good  

It's so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that's what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom. Alice Walker  

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. John Lennon  

Nobody's free until everybody's free. Fannie Lou Hamer

8. Critical Questions are Good

We have to be able to criticise what we love, to say what we have to say 'cause if your not trying to make something better, than as far as I can tell, you are just in the way.  Ani DiFranco

Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed. Bruce Springsteen  

What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank? Bertolt Brecht  

Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem. John Lennon  

9. Imagination is Good

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Albert Einstein  

Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to "jump at de sun." We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground. Zora Neale Hurston

Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one. John Lennon  

10. Pain and Suffering are Bad

The most important question in the world is, 'Why is the child crying?' Alice Walker  

11. Learning is Good

All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual. Albert Einstein  

The free development of each is the precondition for the free development of all. Karl Marx    

12. Free Expression is Good  

My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all. John Lennon  

We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren?t it doesn?t matter. Langston Hughes  

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. Maya Angelou

13. Eating is Good

Morals are not the important thing--nor enlightenment--nor civilization. A man can do absolutely well without them, but he can't do without something to eat. The supremest thing is the need of the body, not of the mind and spirit. Mark Twain

The first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living human individuals. Thus the first fact to be established is the physical organization of these individuals and their consequent relation to the rest of nature. Karl Marx 

Food is the first thing, morals follow on. Bertolt Brecht

14. Drowning is Bad

When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream. John Lennon