Two good quotes

1. From an article on Gandhi by Pankaj Mishra in the May 2 issue of The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2011/05/02/110502crbo_books_mishra):

"Gandhi's greatest contribution to the arsenal of political activism, however, is his theory and practice of bringing together great masses of highly motivated and disciplined protesters in public spaces. Here his spiritual beliefs were crucial: the assumption, in particular, that, regardless of the regime people lived under - democracy or dictatorship, capitalist or socialist - they always possessed a freedom of conscience, an inner capacity to make moral choices in everyday life. As his mass campaigns often proved, and the recent Arab uprisings have affirmed, such strongly self-aware individuals acting cooperatively in the spotlight of the world media could come to wield an astonishing amount of moral authority - the "authentic, enduring power" of people that, as Hannah Arendt wrote in her analysis of the Prague Spring of 1968, a repressive regime or government could neither create nor suppress through the use of terror, and before which it must eventually surrender."

The "freedom of conscience" part reminds me of Victor Frankl.

2. From an article by Laura Carstensen (Stanford psychology professor) and colleagues that I used in my lifespan psychological development class last week (citations removed from quote):

"Although there is no doubt that people experience an increasingly disproportionate number of losses as compared with gains as they age, and fully expect such changes to occur, we argue that the program of research we have outlined contributes an important complement to theoretical models that presume age differences reflect the accommodation to actual or even anticipated loss. In our theoretical formulation, loss is not a precondition for change; rather many changes reflect proactive shifts due to the salience of different goals at different points in the life cycle. Something in the finite nature of time appears to make life precious, especially as the end nears. Within this framework, age changes may reflect increased appreciation of life rather than despair about loss."

Carstensen, L. L., Isaacowitz, D. M., & Charles, S. T. (1999). Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity. American Psychologist, 54, 165-181.