People From Hartford

"Little wonder that the dumbing down of the political discourse, the attack ads and war rooms reign triumphant. The fifth estate is an enabler in this addiction to political trivia in place of reasoned debate."

"“I’m one of the few MPs who never has a prepared text for everything I do, because I don’t have a bunch of people telling me what I have to say,”"

"“Without sounding arrogant,” she says, “I’m good on my feet.”"

"“When women raise their voices to be heard over the noise, they sound hysterical,” she says. “It’s a sexist world. If you lose control over your lower register, you’re going to be seen as a nut.”"

"“Strategically, as leader of the Green Party and the first elected Green in Parliament, I didn’t want to be in a renovated bank building,” she says. “I wanted to be on Parliament Hill, in a building that screams out at you, this is Parliament!”"

"Heckling “tunes people out of their democracy,” she says"

"“I was raised to be extremely productive,” May recalls. “That was how my mom would put it; she’d say, ‘I had a very productive day.’ ”"

"“I’d rather have no Green seats and Stephen Harper lose, than a full caucus that stares across the floor at Stephen Harper as prime minister, because his policies are too dangerous,” she told the Toronto Star."

"“C-10 is such a nightmare, because we’re going to have a ton of amendments,” she says. “And I can’t present them unless I’m physically there.”"

"“Don’t give up,” she implored. “Get up and fight.”"

"“Kyoto is not dead,” May says. “We’ve got a year to convince the prime minister to change his position.”"

"You can’t deal with an issue like climate change if you basically abandon a healthy democracy and allow a corporatist culture to make the decisions. So you need engaged citizens, and you need Occupy,” she says. “You need people who have never seen themselves as political to become political. We need maybe 15 to 20 percent of Canadians to become really engaged and demand better. And then we’ll get it.”"

"The increasing prominence of a presidential-style prime minister is steadily denigrating the traditions and institutions of Canadian democracy."

"Three of my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence. It's just that any system of government has it pluses and minuses and it's important to understand the system of government you do live under so that you can protect it."

"I participate, therefore I am."

"The role of the individual MP has been sidelined by the power of the Cabinet, and now by the PM alone."

"We Canadians think that Canada is a modern, well informed democracy. We look down our noses at the dumbed down content on Fox News and CNN, without noticing that we are rapidly heading in the same direction."

"Of all the deteriorating aspects of Canadian democracy, the lack of concern over the ability of the national police force to interfere in elections is the one that most suggests Third World politics."

"Countries with high voting rates also have high levels of political knowledge."

"I see that I have too much confined my thoughts to God, and that I ought to go directly to the Saviour's arms, and that I ought to believe, abominable as my sins have been, if they have once been pardoned, they form no partition between me and the heart of Christ."

"Standing on my watch-tower I am commanded, if I see aught of evil coming, to give warning. I solemnly declare that I do discern evil approaching; I see a storm collecting in the heavens; I discover the commotion of the troubled elements; I hear the roar of a distant wind — heaven and earth seem mingled in the conflict — and I cry to those for whom I watch, "A storm! A storm! Get you into the ark or you are swept away. "Oh! what is it I see? I see a world convulsed and falling to ruins — the sea burning like oil — nations rising from under ground — the sun falling — the damned in chains before the bar, and some of my poor hearers among them! I see them cast from the battlements of the judgment scene. My God! the eternal pit has closed upon them forever!"

"Spencer "was incapable", our critic haughtily remarks, "of discerning the difference between a homogeneity in matter, necessarily and blindly tending toward a heterogeneity, , and such a law of organism [sic], progress, and growth as requires a spiritual intelligence to originate and maintain it." Perheps he was a poor man! or perhaps he thought he had better discern and formulate progress where he could do it to the best advantage, and leave the postulating of spiritual intelligences to those who had a greater talent than he for building in the region of the unverifiable."

"Christianity is more than history; it is also a system of truths. Every event which its history records, either is a truth, or suggests a truth, or expresses a truth which man needs to assent to or to put into practice."

"Katie Hepburn went to the meetings. She was a good friend of 's. I had a little car, a little broken down Ford Roadster with a rumble seat. I used to go around and collect people Saturday night and we'd go up to Eunice's house. She lived in a brownstone house of her parents on 65th Street. We would go up to the third floor, which was her bedroom with a lovely fire glowing, and lie on the floor and talk about the theatre. I remember one night Katie Hepburn said: ‘Well, I'm not going to join the organization. I've decided against it.' ‘Why, Katie, how can you even think that way?' She said, ‘I don't know. I just feel that I have to do it alone.' I'll never forget that night."

"I survived those three weeks with hardly a decent meal or anyone to help. I kept a brown paper bag in the wastebasket next to my bed. I ate all my meals in my bedroom during this time, so I could pitch the inedible food into it and not be rude to the cooks. This problem, though it had overtones of comedy, was not good for my health. All my film career I had envied Katharine Hepburn's high cheekbones and narrow face. Now I had them."

"My beautiful Grandmother -- Caroline Garlinghouse -- came from Pittsburgh -- my mother's mother. I never met her but I have followed many of her ideas -- through my mother -- And it has given me a warm spot in my heart for your city...My grandmother's brother, Fred Garlinghouse, lived in Pittsburgh, was an engineer and apparently worked for Jones and Laughlin Steel Company."

"That's just great," someone said under his breath. "We've got a bloody queen mother alien living with us. She could blow into a million new buggers at any moment."

"I am female," I complained. "That 'it' business is really getting on my nerves." [...] "By whose definition?" "How about by yours? In my species, I am the one that bears young. Is that not female enough for you?"

"I was all alone in my head — exactly what I had once wanted. It made me feel lost."

"And it wasn't just ripping, but twisting and pulling in different directions. Because Melanie's heart broke, too, and it was a separate sensation, as if we'd grown another organ to compensate for our twin awarenesses. A double heart for a double mind. Twice the pain."

"This place was truly the highest and the lowest of all worlds — the most beautiful senses, the most exquisite emotions... the most malevolent desires, the darkest deeds. Perhaps it was meant to be so. Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached."

"You never know how much time you'll have."

"It was a miracle — more than a miracle — when I found you, Melanie. Right now, if I was given the choice between having the world back and having you, I wouldn't be able to give you up. Not to save five billion lives."

"And then [Edward and I] continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever."

"Who rules you, nomads? Do you answer to someone's will besides your own? Are you free to choose your own path, or will the Volturi decide how you will live? "I came to witness. I stay to fight. The Volturi care nothing for the death of a child. They seek the death of our free will."

""It's a strange world," I murmured, more to myself than to the other native soul. "The strangest," he agreed."

"I held you in my hand, Wanderer. And you were so beautiful."

""You. Are. Not. Leaving. Me." His eyes blazed — burning brighter than I had ever seen them, blue flames."

"What was it that made this human love so much more desirable to me than the love of my own kind? Was it because it was exclusive and capricious? The souls offered love and acceptance to all. Did I crave a greater challenge? This love was tricky; it had no hard-and-fast rules — it might be given for free, as with Jamie, or earned through time and hard work, as with Ian, or completely and heartbreakingly unattainable, as with Jared. Or was it simply better somehow? Because these humans could hate with so much fury, was the other end of the spectrum that they could love with more heart and zeal and fire?"

"It's not the face, but the expressions on it. It's not the voice, but what you say. It's not how you look in that body, but the things you do with it. You are beautiful.""

"You stupid jackass," Ian said. "Who's got the crush on a worm, bro? You gonna call me stupid?"

"I'm exactly right for you, Bella. It would have been effortless for us — comfortable, easy as breathing. I was the natural path your life would have taken. [...] If the world was the way it was supposed to be, if there were no monsters and no magic..."

"[W]hen I left you, Bella, I left you bleeding. Jacob was the one to stitch you back up again. That was bound to leave its mark — on both of you. I'm not sure those kinds of stitches dissolve on their own."

"You know, Jacob, if it weren't for the fact that we're natural enemies and that you're also trying to steal away the reason for my existence, I might actually like you." "Maybe...if you weren't a disgusting vampire who was planning to suck out the life of the girl I love...well, no, not even then."

"I wondered if I was a monster. Not the kind that [Edward] thought he was, but the real kind. The kind that hurt people. The kind that had no limits when it came to what they wanted."

"They stood out from the rest of the crowd, their beauty and grace otherworldly. I wondered how I'd ever fallen for their human farce. A couple of angels, standing there with wings intact, would be less conspicuous."

"Edward rode in the backseat of my father's police car, behind the fiberglass divider, with an amused expression — probably due to my father's amused expression, and the grin that widened every time Charlie stole a glance at Edward in his rearview mirror."

"I hate you, Jacob Black." "That's good. Hate is a passionate emotion." "I'll give you passionate," I muttered under my breath. "Murder, the ultimate crime of passion."

"If there were any way for me to become human for you — no matter what the price was, I would pay it."

"I am a neutral country. I am Switzerland. I refuse to be affected by territorial disputes between mythical creatures."