P thru T

"Each person must live their life as a model for others." - Rosa Parks, civil rights heroine, after she learned that she was to be given an honorary doctorate by the University of Southern California

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1. "You'd be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap!"

2. "I'm not offended by dumb blonde jokes because I know that I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not blonde."

3. "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."
- Dolly Parton

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"One should never lose hope. Homosexuality can strike any straight man at any age." - Roger Peyrefitte (French novelist)

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"Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection - they have many friends and few enemies." Wendell Phillips (1811-1884)

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"Sex is like bridge: If you don't have a good partner, you better have a good hand." - Charles Pierce (female impersonator)

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"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark, the real tragedy is a man who is afraid of the light" - Plato

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"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." - Plato

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"The pure mind, which is the source of all things, shines forever with the radiance of its own perfection. But most people are not aware of it, and think that Mind is just the faculty that sees, hears, feels and knows. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling and knowing, they don't perceive the radiance of the source. If they could eliminate all conceptual thinking, this source would appear, like the sun rising through the empty sky and illuminating the whole universe." - Huang Po

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"Sorrows remembered sweeten present joy." - Robert Pollok

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"A little learning is a dangerous thing! drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again." - Alexander Pope

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It is with narrow souled people as with narrow necked bottles; the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out. - Alexander Pope

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Every new generation must wage a new war for freedom against new forces which seek through new devices to enslave mankind. - Progressive Party platform, 1924

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"While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow a part of us to die - whether it is our spirit, our creativity or our glorious uniqueness." - Gilda Radner

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"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You didn't place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible." - Constitutional law professor Jamie Raskin, to a Maryland Senate committee on marriage equality

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"Teaching was the hardest work I had ever done, and it remains the hardest work I have done to date." - Ann Richards

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"But I'll tell you something sort of interesting. There's something, you know, there's something a little scary about funny women. Well, they're threatening. And there was a survey done one time where they asked women what they were most afraid of from men. And the -- their response was they were most afraid of being hit or beaten or hurt from men. And they asked men what they were most afraid of from women, and they said being laughed at. " - Gov. Ann Richards

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"Children learn antipathy for homosexuals at home: it's as right as love. If a boy finds out he isn't drawn to girls but rather falls in love with other boys, he's learned to hate himself. He knows he is a fag. Other disrespected groups of people -- Blacks, Jews, women -- though they suffer stigma and injustice, learn at least a feeble sense of self-worth and belonging from their families. At worst they have a meager social place. Fags have none." - Darrell Yates Rist,1985

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"To be poor in America was to be invisible, but not after this week, not after those images of the bedraggled masses at the Superdome, convention center and airport. No one can claim that the post-Reagan orthodoxy of low taxes and small government, which does wonders for the extremely rich, also inevitably does wonders for the extremely poor. What was that about a rising tide lifting all boats? What if you don't have a boat?" - Eugene Robinson, columnist, after Hurricane Katrina Sept. 2005 (Source: The Washington Post)

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"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

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"I'm a Queer atheist. I hope Jesus does come back. I bet he'd be a miraculously good bottom." - B. Allan Ross, yourhost@usQueers.com

"I love it when HRC [the Human Rights Campaign] calls me up. 'Hi, Ann. Do you know that gays and lesbians can be fired in 36 states for no reason? Will you please give us $100 so we can spend another legislative session fighting for a watered-down nondiscrimination bill that will get killed in the House? Oh, and we also need money to expand our fundraising activities and start our new capital campaign for the headquarters we'll be building on the Rhode Island Avenue lot we just bought. Did I mention we're fighting for hate-crime legislation, along with all the other gay-rights issues that draw approval ratings of 75 percent or higher in national polls. I hope we can count on you!" - Syndicated San Francisco Bay Times newswriter Ann Rostow, in an April 4 filing.

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"There is only one blasphemy, and that is the refusal to experience joy." - Paul Rudnick

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"I speak for the individual. For anyone out there who's ever had a dream and has had to listen to 'Honey, you can't do that.' 'We don't allow blacks here.' 'We don't allow fags here.' 'We don't allow women in this bar.' I am a giant 'Fuck you' to bigotry. Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, and now RuPaul." - RuPaul Charles, 1994

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Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves. - Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

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The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool. - George Santayana

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"Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim." - George Santayana

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"When she left, she wept a great deal; she said to me, 'This parting must be endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly. ' I said, "Go, and be happy but remember (you know well) whom you leave shackled by love." - Sappho

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"Joking about Christianity isn't evidence that I'm intolerant. Hell, I'm perfectly willing to tolerate Christians. I have never, for instance, attempted to prevent Christians from marrying each other, or tried to stop them from adopting children, or worked to make it illegal for them to hold certain jobs. I don't threaten to boycott companies that market their products to Christians, and I don't organize letter-writing campaigns to complain about Christian characters on television." - Dan Savage

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"Hear it one more time perfectly clearly: If you're gay or a lesbian, it's a biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex. The fact that you are intelligent, creative and valuable is all true. The error is in your inability to relate sexually intimately, in a loving way to a member of the opposite sex - it is a biological error." - Laura Schlessinger

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"Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind." - Seneca (4 B.C.E. - C.E. 65)

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"A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature." - Seneca

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"There are none more abusive to others than they that lie most open to it themselves." - Seneca

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" If you never have, you should, these things are fun, and fun is good." - Dr. Seuss

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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss

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"For everyone who thinks that Broadway is full of nothing but Jews and gays, Oy! ... me and my lover just won a Grammy!" -- "Hairspray" composer Marc Shaiman and lyricist Scott Wittman at the 2/23/03 ceremonies

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This above all: to thine own self be true. - William Shakespeare, Hamlet

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You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not? - George Bernard Shaw

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"Though GLAAD now seems to be taking much of the credit for bringing down [Dr. Laura] Schlessinger['s TV show], dominating most of the articles about the show's end, the majority of thanks and congratulations needs to go to the activists in StopDrLaura.com who weren't paid for their efforts, and who showed us all just how powerful we could be." - Gay.com columnist Michelangelo Signorile

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By killing yourself, intentionally or through unsafe sex, you call yourself worthless and expendable. How can you think of a human being that way? Quit punishing yourself for the bigotry in society. Refuse to help the cause of homophobia. Take care of yourself. Learn to love yourself and protect yourself. See yourself and your partner as worth protecting. Treat safer sex as an act of defiance and gay pride, a statement about your love for yourself, a statement about the value of your life." -- Duane Simolke

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"In college, I experimented with heterosexuality. I slept with a straight guy. I was really drunk." - Bob Smith, comic

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"The last few years in scouting have deeply saddened me to see the Boy Scouts of America actively and publicly participating in discrimination. It's a real shame. ... Once scouting fully opens its doors to all who desire the same experience that so fully enriched me as a young person, I will be happy to reconsider a role on the advisory board." - Film producer and director Steven Spielberg resigning from his position on the Boy Scouts of America advisory board, April 16, 2001.

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I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused. - Benedict Spinoza

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"There is no need for parents to fear homosexual teachers. Ninety-seven percent of child seduction is heterosexual." - Dr. Benjamin Spock

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"If we can bless warships, supermarkets, fox hounds and baseball stadiums why then can't we bless two homosexual people who want God to be a part of their relationship and commit themselves in faith and integrity to each other?" - Bishor John Shelby Spong

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1. "I have tried sex with both men and women. I found I liked it."

2. "I burp like everyone else and I'm promiscuous."

3. "My sexuality has never been a problem to me but I think it has been for other people."
- Dusty Springfield

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"What is the question?" - Gertrude Stein was a U.S. writer who became famous for her experimental prose. She lived most of her life in Paris with her companion Alice B. Toklas. When Stein was dying of cancer, she turned to Alice B. Toklas and whispered, "What is the answer?" Miss Toklas did not respond. Stein nodded, as if in agreement, and continued, "In that case, what is the question?"

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"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." - Wilhelm Stekel

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Emotion turning back on itself, and not leading on to thought or action, is the element of madness. - John Sterling

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Those who are prejudiced against gays start out by saying homosexuality isn't natural "because animals don't do it." When it's pointed out that yes, animals certainly do, they simply flip-flop and say "well, people aren't animals!" - William Stosine

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"The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues." - Elizabeth Taylor

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"I don't think President [G.H.W.]Bush is doing anything at all about Aids. In fact, I'm not sure he even knows how to spell Aids." - Elizabeth Taylor

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"If it weren't for gays, honey, there wouldn't be a Hollywood!" - Liz Taylor

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"I loved Monty with all my heart and just knew that he was unhappy. I knew that he was meant to be with a man and not a woman, and I discussed it with him. I introduced him to some really nice young guys." - Elizabeth Taylor about Montgomery Clift

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"When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself." - Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief

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This guy says, "I'm perfect for you, 'cause I'm a cross between a macho man and a sensitive man." I said, "Oh, a gay trucker?" - Judy Tenuta

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"There is no relationship more curious than the one that exists between gay people and organized religion, for they have long been among its greatest sufferers and saints." - Mark Thompson, 1987

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That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. - Henry David Thoreau

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"All men and women woo me. There is a fragrance in their breath." - Henry David Thoreau

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"For every ten people who are clipping at the branches of evil, you're lucky to find one who's hacking at the roots." - Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American philosopher

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The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat. - Lily Tomlin

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"Those who want the government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide." - Harry Truman

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"If the church, after victory over apartheid, is looking for a worthy moral crusade, then this is it: the fight against homophobia and heterosexism." - South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu

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"I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights." - Desmond Tutu

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"A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows." - Mark Twain

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"Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion--several of them." - Mark Twain

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