Dominic Robin

“¿Cómo era posible que los gobiernos de Juan José Arévalo y Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, empeñados en acabar con el feudalismo en Guatemala y convertir al país en una democracia liberal y capitalista, hubieran provocado semejante histeria en la United Fruit y en los Estados Unidos? Que desataran la indignación entre los finqueros guatemaltecos lo podía entender, eran gentes congeladas en el pasado; también comprendía a la Frutera, por supuesto, que nunca antes había pagado impuestos. ¡Pero en Washington! ¿Era ésa la democracia que querían los gringos para América Latina? ¿Ésa la democracia que había postulado Roosevelt con sus discursos de «buena vecindad» con América Latina? ¿Una dictadura militar al servicio de un puñado de latifundistas codiciosos y racistas y de una gran corporación yanqui? ¿Para eso habían bombardeado los sulfatos la ciudad de Guatemala, matando e hiriendo a decenas de inocentes?”
― Mario Vargas Llosa, Tiempos recios

“In humility, we recognize that we cannot convince everyone to agree with us. In tolerance, we make space for those with whom we disagree. In patience, we seek understanding, listening to the concerns of others, taking their questions seriously. The common good is served as we put these virtues into public practice, making room for differences.”
― S. Joshua Swamidass, The Genealogical Adam and Eve: The Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry

“If there is anything in the life of any culture or period that gives good grounds for alarm, it is the rise of cultural pessimism, whose major passion is bitter hostility toward many or most of the people within the very culture the pessimists always feel they are intent on rescuing. When panic on one side is creating alarm on another, it is easy to forget there are always as good grounds for optimism as for pessimism, exactly the same grounds, in fact. That is because we are human. We still have every potential for good as we ever had, and the same presumptive claim to respect, our own respect in one another. We are still creatures of singular interest and value, agile of soul as we have always been and as we will continue to be even despite our errors and degradations for as long as we abide on this earth. To value one another is our greatest safety, and to indulge in fear and contempt is our gravest error.”
― Marilynne Robinson, The Givenness of Things: Essays

“A fool with a tool is still a fool.”
― Abraham Verghese