The Official Website of Michael Corthell

“Our economy is based on spending billions to persuade people that happiness is buying things, and then insisting that the only way to have a viable economy is to make things for people to buy so they’ll have jobs and get enough money to buy things.” ― Philip Slater The way our dominant economy works now creates a social disease: poverty, and for people to actually gain off the misery of others and the destruction of the environment is completely unacceptable and will eventually destroy us if we don't change it.

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” ― Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being Explanations are not solutions. “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” ― Albert Einstein

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” ― Abraham Lincoln Your actions create either happiness or sorrow. 

  “The best sleeping pill is a clear conscience.” ― Dada J. P. Vaswani I am a vegan with a clear conscience, I sleep peacefully every night. “I nod in the darkness. He embraces me and before long he's fast asleep, a man with clear conscience and an open heart. I stay awake, listening to his breath and thinking of the webs we weave.” ― Lizbeth Gabriel, The Theater Of Dusk

“People die from lack of shared empathy and affinity. By establishing social connectedness, we give hope a chance and the other can become heaven. ( "Le ciel c'est l'autre" )” ― Erik Pevernagie JUST how difficult is it for one person to feel the injustice directed at another?

“The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don't.” ― Joshua Becker What's the ONE thing, that one joy, that's most important to you? Determine what that is and build your life around it. 

  We don’t even have to be the one doing or receiving an act of kindness to feel the positive effects. By simply by seeing a kind act, we get all the proven health and feel-good benefits. Studies also show that kindness is contagious. Whether you see, do, or receive an act of kindness, you’re more likely to pay it forward! Be positive.  Be mindful. Be grateful. Be true. Be kind  Be Vegan ! “I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." ~ Gandalf (J. R. R. Tolkein ~ The Hobbit)” ― J. R. R. Tolkien

“The world says: "You have needs -- satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder. ” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Our current (#capitalist) economy is driven by spending huge amounts(advertising) to trick people into thinking that happiness is about buying things, and at the same time insisting that the only way to have a better, stronger economy is to produce more goods for people to buy so they’ll have jobs and get enough money to buy these things. “Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Of our thinking it is but the upper surface that we shape into articulate thought; underneath the region of argument and conscious discourse lies the region of meditation.” ― Thomas Carlyle When you want something you never had(peace of mind for instance), you have to do something you've never done.

Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble. — Yehuda Berg The worst thing a person can do in trying to change the world is to stand alone.

“If you put good apples into a bad situation, you’ll get bad apples.” ― Philip G. Zimbardo The perception of what is good or evil can be manipulated, that is, it can be made a grey choice and almost every person can be pressured by external forces to be immoral in their actions.

“The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything;  the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing.” ― Hannah Whitall Smith Gratitude wakes us to the limitless potential of the Universe, but thanklessness closes our eyes to it.

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets At the last, it doesn't matter how hard the choice was to make. What really matters is that you did.

“We've begun to raise daughters more like sons...  but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.” ― Gloria Steinem Other than for procreation,  gender has no role in society.

“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” ― Arthur Conan Doyle   Fear is the second greatest motivator. The first, thankfully is love. “If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.” ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

  “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” ― Andre Gide, Autumn Leaves The pain and the weight of life are relieved by love.

“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.” ― Mark Twain Nationalism(in any country) is like this; people will do great acts of evil for what they perceive is the common good if they can spread out the guilt of those acts among the many. “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” ― James Baldwin

“To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.” ― Socrates Is death the opposite of birth or just a step before, that we have forgotten? Death, be not proud (Holy Sonnet 10) John Donne - 1571-1631 Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell&

“Everything you can imagine is real.” ― Pablo Picasso Everyone is can be a skilled artist as long as they draw freely upon their imagination.

“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Your reality and its quality is the aggregate result of  your thoughts. If you want a better reality, clean up your thoughts -- it's just that simple.

“ Make your own Bible . Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson The *tree of life is on each side of the river, and it produces fruit every month...The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations. ― Revelation 22 “For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beaut

“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 live as one.” ― John Lennon If you're reading this...yippee, you are alive!  If that's not something to celebrate,  then I don't know what else is!   “Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all.” ― Emily Dickinson

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” ― Benjamin Franklin The Time is NOW You are never too young or too old for success or going after what you want. No excuses... 1) Helen Keller, at the age of 19 months, became deaf and blind. But that didn’t stop her. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. 2) Mozart was already competent on keyboard and violin; he composed from the age of 5. 3) Shirley Temple was 6 when she became a movie star on “Bright Eyes.” 4) Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the diary of Anne Frank. 5) Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the age of 13. 6) Nadia Comăneci was a gymnast from Romania that scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics at age 14. 7) Tenzin Gyatso was formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama in November 1950, at the age of 15. 8) Pele, a soccer superstar, was 17 years old when he won the world cup in 1958 with Brazil. 9) Elvis was a superstar by age

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” ― Albert Einstein If you fail, accept it as a sign that your plans were not solid. Don't ditch your goal, redesign your plans.

“It is good people who make good places.” ― Anna Sewell, Black Beauty Be the person who makes someone smile. Be the reason someone feels good about themselves and believes in the goodness in people.