Brandon Monk

“Imagine a flock of pigeons in a corn field. Imagine that ninety-nine of them, instead of pecking the corn they need and using it as they need it, start to collect all they can into one big heap. Imagine that they do not leave much corn for themselves, but save this big heap of corn on behalf of the vilest and worst in their flock. Imagine that they all sit in a circle and watch this one pigeon, who squanders and wastes this wealth. And then imagine that they rush at a weak pigeon who is the most hungry among them who darest to take one grain from the heap without permission, and they punish him. If you can imagine this, then you can understand the day-to-day behavior of mankind. —WILLIAM PALEY”
― Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se

“Only during a period of war does it become obvious how millions of people can be manipulated. People, millions of people, are filled with pride while doing things which those same people actually consider stupid, evil, dangerous, painful, and criminal, and they strongly criticize these things—but continue doing them.”
― Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se

“Frank Lloyd Wright insisted that constraints historically have resulted in a flowering of the imagination: “The human race built most nobly when limitations were greatest and, therefore, when most was required of imagination in order to build at all.”
― Jocelyn K. Glei, Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind

“He has learned that it is difficult to live in the present, pointless to live in the future and impossible to live in the past.”
― Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune