The Orphan Spirit

Young men want to be faithful, and cannot;

Old men want to be faithless, and cannot.

Oscar Wilde

We are shaped and fashioned by those we love.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Du sökte en blomma

och fann en frukt.

Du sökte en källa

och fann ett hav.

Du sökte en kvinna

och fann en själ -

Du är besviken.

Edith Södergran

What is Cognitive Dissonance?

The indifference, callousness and contempt

that so many people exhibit toward animals

is evil first because it results in great suffering

in animals, and second because it results in

an incalculably great impoverishment

of the human spirit.

Albert Einstein

Jo Frederiks

No man is capable of causing great evil

without thinking he's doing the right thing.

Socrates

Evil comes from a failure to think.

It defies thought for as soon as thought

tries to engage itself with evil and examine

the premises and principles from which it

originates, it is frustrated because

it finds nothing there.

That is the banality of evil.

Hannah Arendt

If a man aspires towards a righteous life,

his first act of abstinence is

from injury to animals.

Albert Einstein

It's troubling when people get upset with vegans

for pointing out the suffering, rather than

getting upset with themselves for causing it.

Jo Tyler

Those who lack the courage will always

find a philosophy to justify it.

Albert Camus

I cannot conceive of a greater loss

than the loss of one's self-respect.

Mahatma Gandhi

Jo Frederiks

It is not what we eat but what we digest

that makes us strong;

not what we gain but what we save

that makes us rich;

not what we read but what we remember

that makes us learned; and

not what we profess but what we practice

that gives us integrity.

Francis Bacon

Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions

based on values rather than personal gain.

Chris Karcher

To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest

thing in the world is to act in accordance

with your thinking.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Men of integrity, by their very existence,

rekindle the belief that as a people we can

live above the level of moral squalor.

John W. Gardner

Often, vegan advocates assume that a person's

defensiveness is the result of selfishness or

apathy, when in fact it is much more

likely the result of systematic and

intensive social conditioning.

Melanie Joy

Formula for healthy relating:

practice integrity + honor dignity = connection and security

Integrity is the integration of the core moral values of compassion and justice and behaviors. It's treating others with respect.

Dignity is one's sense of inherent worth. When we honor someone's dignity, we percieve and treat them as no less worthy of respect than anyone else.

The reward for doing right is mostly

an internal phenomen; self-respect,

dignity, integrity, and self-esteem.

Laura Schlessinger

Happiness is when what you think,

what you say and what you do

are in harmony.

Mahatma Gandhi

Q & A

A Feminine Impression - How to get over a toxic person

- Cut him off.

- Stop thinking about him.

- Write down what you want in your new partner.

- Evaluate why you were attracted to him.

Rich Roll

Pursue what's in your heart, and

the universe will conspire to support you.

Rich Roll

Smart people learn from everything

and everyone, average people from

their experiences, stupid people

already have all the answers.

Socrates

If we begin with ourselves and do the things

that we need to do and become the best person

we can be, we have a much better chance

of changing the world for the better.

Aleksandr Solzjenitsyn

🪳 What About Insects? 🐝

Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar

is almost as valuable to the child

as it is to the caterpillar.

Bradley Miller

Start with what is right

rather than what is acceptable.

Franz Kafka

True empathy is not self-focused but other-

oriented. Instead of making humanity

the measure of all things, we need to

evaluate other species by what they are.

Frans de Waal

If honey bees die out,

humans will follow a few years later.

Albert Einstein

Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening

our circle of compassion to embrace all living

creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

Albert Einstein

Black History

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery,

I feel a strong impulse to see it tried

on him personally.

Abraham Lincoln

The white man's happiness cannot be

purchased by the black man's misery.

Fredrick Douglass

Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.

Frederick Douglass

You can always count on Americans to do

the right thing - after they've tried

everything else.

Winston Churchill

Those who tell the stories rule society.

Plato

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 cherised,

that every flower is to bloom.

Alice Walker

Music is to the soul what words are to the mind.

Modest Mouse

I'm in favor of animal rights as well as human

rights. That is the way of a whole human being.

Abraham Lincoln

Make the Connection

Compassion is ethical intelligence:

it is the capacity to make connections

and the consequent urge to act

to relieve the suffering of others.

Will Tuttle

I stopped eating meat some 50 years ago

when I looked at the pork chop on my plate

and thought: this represents fear, pain, death.

Jane Goodall

Jo Frederiks

Don't talk of love and peace when you

have a dead animal on your plate.

Socrates

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart,

cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

Mahatma Gandhi

Until he extends his circle of compassion

to include all living creatures,

man will not himself find peace.

Albert Schweitzer

I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill,

and not to support any act of killing in the world.

We should consume in such a way that helps

to reduce the suffering of living beings.

And that way we can preserve

compassion in our hearts.

Thich Nhat Hanh

The indifference, callousness and contempt that

so many people exhibit toward animals is evil

first because it results in great suffering

in animals, and second because it results in

an incalculably great impoverishment

of the human spirit.

Albert Einstein

A sane person to an insane society

must appear insane.

Kurt Vonnegut

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root,

can only attain its full breadth and depth

if it embraces all living creatures and

does not limit itself to mankind.

Albert Schweitzer

Compassion is an unstable emotion.

It needs to be translated into action,

or it withers.

Susan Sontag

What society does to its children,

so will its children do to society.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

What do they know - all these scholars, all these

philosophers, all the leaders of the world -

about such as you? They have convinced

themselves that man, the worst transgressor

of all the species, is the crown of creation.

All other creatures were created merely to

provide him with food, pelts,

to be tormented, exterminated.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

All beings tremble before violence. All fear

death. All love life. See yourself in others.

Then whom can you hurt?

What harm can you do?

Buddha

What I want people to know is that it's a joy

to be vegan. It feels good intellectually, morally,

spiritually. It's just leading with kindness

basically. That's what we all need to do. Lead

with kindness and that will change the world.

Jo-Ann McArthur

I felt that if I were to continue to live

in this world I had to do what I could

to reduce the suffering around me,

or at the very least, not to add to it....

I gave up eating meat.

I have not eaten it since.

Nick Cave

Manifesting & Receiving

Believing involves thinking, talking and acting

as though you have already received.

Mastin Kipp

You become what you give your attention to.

Epictetus

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues,

but the parent of all others.

Cicero

What you think you become.

What you feel you attract.

What you imagine you create.

Buddha

1. Be inspired by others instead of being jealous.

2. Be grateful for what you have. Gratitude is second only to love.

3. Visualize what you want and that you already have it. Make it a practice.

4. Be a good person who deserves to get what you want. Be vegan.

Gratitude helps you fall in love

with the life you already have.

Kristen Hewitt

Great minds have purposes;

others have wishes.

Washington Irving

If you hold an anti-war rally, I shall not attend.

But if you hold a Pro-Peace rally invite me.

Mother Teresa

The good you want for others is also

the good that's meant for you.

Mastin Kipp

He who is not contended with what he has,

would not be contended with what

he would like to have.

Socrates

Life is an echo.

What you send out, comes back.

What you sow, you reap.

What you give, you get.

What you see in others, exists in you.

Remember, life is an echo.

It always gets back to you.

So give goodness.

Zig Ziglar

The Best Arguments Against Veganism

To find yourself, think for yourself.

Socrates

Evil comes from a failure to think.

It defies thought for as soon as thought

tries to engage itself with evil

and examine the premises and principles

from which it originates,

it is frustrated because it finds nothing there.

That is the banality of evil.

Hannah Arendt

I try to encourage people to think for themselves,

to question standard assumptions... Don't take

assumptions for granted. Begin by taking a

skeptical attitude toward anything that is

conventional wisdom. Make it justify itself.

Be willing to ask questions about what

is taken for granted. Try to think

things through for yourself.

Noam Chomsky

It is impossible for a man to learn

what he thinks he already knows.

Epictetus

Many are destined  to reason wrongly; others,

not to reason at all; and others to persecute

those who do reason.

Voltaire

Those who will not reason, are bigots,

those who cannot, are fools,

and those who dare not, are slaves.

Lord Byron

The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die.

As well the minds which are prevented from

changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.

Friedrich Nietzsche

You were not made to live as brutes,

but to follow virtue and knowledge.

Dante Alighieri

Let me give you a definition of ethics:

it is good to maintain and further life

it is bad to damage and destroy life.

Albert Schweitzer

Two percent of the people think.

Three percent of the people think they think.

And ninty-five percent of the people

would rather die than think.

George Bernard Shaw

Don't worry about siding for or against

the majority. Worry about taking up

any of their irrational beliefs.

Marcus Aurelius

It is difficult to get a man to understand

something when his salary depends on

his not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair

All the arguments to prove man's superiority

cannot shatter this hard fact:

in suffering the animals are our equals.

Peter Singer

The roots of education are bitter,

but the fruit is sweet.

Aristotle

Ultimately evil is done not so much by evil

people, but by good people who do not

know themselves and who do not

probe deeply.

Reinhold Niebuhr

The indifference, callousness and contempt

that so many people exhibit toward animals

is evil first because it results in great suffering

in animals, and second because it results in

an incalculably great impoverishment

of the human spirit.

Albert Einstein

Progress is impossible without change,

and those who cannot change their minds

cannot change anything.

George Bernard Shaw

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures

is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them:

that's the essence of inhumanity.

George Bernard Shaw

💝 Self Love 🪷

Integrity: Choosing courage over comfort;

choosing what is right over what is fun, fast

or easy; and choosing to practice our values

rather than simply professing them.

Brené Brown

Integrity is doing the right thing.

Even when no one is watching.

C.S. Lewis

Find your purpose

You are God's masterpiece. You were designed for the purpose that you were made for. What are your gifts and passions?

Personal branding

- How do you want people to experience you?

- Have a set standard for yourself on how you look and behave. Treat others the way you want to be treated.

- Take pride in the way that you present yourself. No matter who you're interacting with - it's a reflection of you. Your self-identity depends on your conduct at all times.

I speak to everyone in the same way,

whether he is the garbage man or

the president of the university.

Albert Einstein

Enjoy your blessings

Don't dim your light to make others comfortable. Don't let others define you.

Luke 7:47

For this reason I say to you, her sins,

which are many, have been forgiven,

for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, 

loves little.

The true measure of a person's character is

how they treat others, especially those less

fortunate. Do not let success or failure

define you.

Marcus Aurelius

- What are your values and goals?

- How do you spend your time and money?

- Are your habits aligned with who you want to be and the life that you want to live?

- Are what you think, say and do in harmony?

- Do you want others to do/say to you/someone you love, what you do/say to others/yourself?

- Do you keep your promises to yourself and to others? Do you respect yourself?

- Write down what you want to change and what you'll do instead.

- Have a visual reminder. Remind yourself every day.

- Fast.

- Build habits.

- Track your behavior. Journal.

- Do you need help in certain areas?

- Do you have role models?

- Are people around you helping you or holding you down?

No man is free who cannot control himself.

Pythagoras

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline;

the sense of dignity grows with

the ability to say no to oneself.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then,

is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle

- Personalize your life. Write down what you need to operate at your maximum potential.

- Personal excellence in everything (appearance, behavior, work etc). Go the extra mile.

- Pay no attention to haters.

- Be willing to learn from wise people.

- Have a neutral attitude to both compliments and negative opinions about you.

- Work on your posture. Eat and drink well. Exercise. Don't drink alcohol.

- Confidence in God.

A career is born in public, talent in privacy.

Marilyn Monroe

The only person with whom you have to

compare yourself is you in the past.

Sigmund Freud

1. Don't take things personally.

2. Set goals.

3. Learn how to be happy alone.

4. Take care of your health.

5. Heal from your past.

In order to love yourself,

you must behave in ways that you admire.

Irvin D. Yalom

Identity capital is our collection of personal

assets. It is the repertoire of individual

resources that we assemble over time.

These are the investments we make in ourselves,

the things we do well enough, or long enough,

that they become part of who we are.

Meg Jay

My method is to take the utmost trouble

to find the right thing to say,

and then to say it with the utmost levity.

George Bernard Shaw

- Be gentle to yourself.

- Develop your emotional intelligence.

- Create and communicate your boundaries.

- Who you are is enough.

- Embrace your uniqueness.

Be humble, hungry and

the hardest worker in any room.

Dwayne Johnson

Who We Really Are

The whole universe is sum up in the human

being. Devil is not a monster waiting to

trap us. He is a voice inside. Look for your

devil in yourself, not in the others. Don't

forget that the one who knows his devil,

knows his God.

Shams Tabrizi

Jo Frederiks

10 percent of any population is cruel,

no matter what, and 10 percent is merciful,

no matter what, and the remaining

80 percent can be moved in any direction.

Susan Sontag

When all are guilty, no one is;

and the very magnitude of the crime

becomes the best excuse for doing nothing.

Hannah Arendt

Tsunami of Indifference

Evil thrives on apathy

and cannot exist without it.

Hannah Arendt

Any of us has the capacity for atrocity - 

just as each of us has the capacity for heroism.

David Mamet

Jo Frederiks

Your beliefs become your thoughts,

your thoughts become your words,

you words become your actions,

your actions become your habits,

your habits become your values,

your values become your destiny.

Mahatma Gandhi

A long habit of not thinking a thing is wrong,

gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

Thomas Paine

Only with awareness of carnism

can we reclaim our freedom of choice;

without awareness, there is no free choice.

Melanie Joy

Individuals

The indifference, callousness and contempt

that so many people exhibit toward animals

is evil first because it results in great suffering

in animals, and second because it results in

an incalculably great impoverishment

of the human spirit.

Albert Einstein

Often, vegan advocates assume that a person's

defensiveness is the result of selfishness or

apathy, when in fact it is much more likely

the result of systematic and intensive

social conditioning.

Melanie Joy

There are no conditions to which a person cannot

grow accustomed, especially if he sees that

everyone around him lives in the same way.

Leo Tolstoy

Injustice anywhere is a threat

to justice everywhere.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Execution of the Soul

Monsters exist, but they are too few in number

to be truly dangerous. More dangerous

are the common men, the functionaries

ready to believe and to act

without asking questions.

Primo Levi

Whoever does wrong, wrongs himself;

whoever does injustice, does it to himself,

making himself evil.

Marcus Aurelius

The individual has always had to struggle

to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.

If you try it, you will be lonely often, and

sometimes frightened. But no price is too high

to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

Rudyard Kipling

Both optimists and pessimists contributes

to society. The optimist invents the airplane,

the pessimist the parachute.

Bernard Shaw

Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening

our circle of compassion to embrace all living

creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

Albert Einstein

The destiny of animals cannot be separated from

the destiny of man, and the destiny of man

cannot be separated from the destiny

of all of nature.

Gregory Colbert

Life is no brief candle to me.

It is a sort of splendid torch

which I have got a hold of for the moment and

I want to make it burn as brightly as possible

before handing it on to future generations.

Bernard Shaw

Freedom from Indoctrination