“There is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides.”

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.

Life has a certain flavor for those who have fought and risked all that the sheltered and protected can never experience.

All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people.

The human faculties of perception, judgment, discriminative feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference, are exercised only in making a choice. He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice.

Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption.

All attempts by the State to bias the conclusions of its citizens on disputed subjects, are evil.

Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends.

So Long as we do not harm others we should be free to think, speak, act, & live as we see fit, without molestation from individuals, law, or gov’t.

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

In proportion to the development of his individuality, each person becomes more valuable to himself, and is therefore capable of being more valuable to others.

A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes–will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.

Photography is a brief complicity between foresight and luck.

Language is the light of the mind.

The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.

The idea that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of those pleasant falsehoods, which most experience refutes. History is teeming with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not put down forever, it may be set back for centuries.

In all the more advanced communities the great majority of things are worse done by the intervention of government than the individuals most interested in the matter would do them, or cause them to be done, if left to themselves.

One of the things that I loved about listening to Miles Davis is that Miles always had an instinct for which musicians were great for what situations. He could always pick a band, and that was the thing that separated him from everybody else.

I am a simple vessel with complex overtones, opinionated on occasions but willing to listen.

At the end of the day, you have to make sure you’re at least listening to what your head is telling you, what your heart is telling you.

That’s one of the most exciting things for me about listening to records: It’s a moment in time, and the less it’s messed with the more powerful it is. I wanted at least one song on the record to be just completely about the moment.

I don’t mind either one [crowd that is more willing to interact or crowd that’s more ready to just watch]. Both of them are forms of listening to what I’m saying so I can’t ask for any more than that.

If you listen to really deep ambient records that don’t move too much, very still records, long after those records are finished, you might find yourself listening for hours to the sound of the room.

….there is a difference between hearing and listening. You can’t always help what you hear. But you can control what holds your interest, what you choose to dwell on.

To do my job well, I have to be a good listener. The listening is so much more important than the talking.