Alan Dressler quotes

When I talk to audiences about the size and age of the cosmos, people often say, "It makes me feel so insignificant." I answer, "The bigger and more impersonal the universe is, the more meaningful you are, because this vast, impersonal place needs something significant to fill it up." We've abandoned the old belief that humanity is at the physical center of the universe but more come back to believing we are at the center of meaning.
-- Alan Dressler

#Meaningful #Spring #Believe

Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.

Human nature has been sold short...[humans have] a higher nature which...includes the need for meaningful work, for responsibility, for creativeness, for being fair and just, for doing what is worthwhile and for preferring to do it well.

It is not enough to simply listen to student voice. Educators have an ethical imperative to do something with students, and that is why meaningful student involvement is vital to school improvement.

Competition in its best form is a test of self. It has nothing to do with medals. The winner is the person who gets the most out of themselves.

[On art:] I believe that it not only enriches the spiritual life, but that it makes one more sane and sympathetic, more observant and understanding, regardless of whatever age it springs from, whatever subjects it represents.

There are going to be a lot of questions, not just in my country but across the Middle East: Is Israel going to continue to be 'Fortress Israel' — or, as we all hope, become accepted into the neighborhood? Which I believe is the only way we can move forward in harmony. And no matter what's happening in the Middle East — the Arab Spring, et cetera, the economic challenges, high rates of unemployment — the emotional, critical issue is always the Israeli-Palestinian one.

Any violence which does not spring from a spiritual base, will be wavering and uncertain. It lacks the stability which can only rest in a fanatical outlook.

I was a narrative historian, believing more and more as I matured that the first function of the historian was to answer the child's question, "What happened next?

I believe the collapse of the House of Windsor is tied in with the collapse of the Church of England.

I believe that whatever comes at a particular time is a blessing from God.