Hubert Horatio Humphrey, US Vice President (1911-1978)

The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life -- the sick, the needy and the handicapped. -Hubert Horatio Humphrey, US Vice President (1911-1978)

Very true, but this doesn't equate to taking care of all their needs, but rather ensuring the structures necessary for the natural, organic supports that they need, i.e., enabling communities of mutual care.

Jane Smiley, novelist (b.1949)

You know what getting married is? It's agreeing to taking this person who right now is at the top of his form, full of hopes and ideas, feeling good, looking good, wildly interested in you because you're the same way, and sticking by him while he slowly disintegrates. And he does the same for you. You're his responsibility now and he's yours. If no one else will take care of him, you will. If everyone else rejects you, he won't. What do you think love is? Going to bed all the time? -Jane Smiley, novelist (b.1949)

Excellent!

Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)

Death destroys the body, as the scaffolding is destroyed after the building is up and finished. And he whose building is up rejoices at the destruction of the scaffolding and of the body. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)

Good one!

Werner Makowski, banker (b. 1929)

The worst kind of people are those who confuse kindness for weakness. -Werner Makowski, banker (b. 1929)

Especially when they confuse an inclination toward kindness within themselves as weakness and therefore eschew it.

Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (1741-1794)

Nature never said to me: Do not be poor. Still less did she say: Be rich. Her cry to me was always: Be independent. -Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (1741-1794)

I don't think it was nature he heard but rather the spirit of his age, the early days of modernity. By nature we are never independent, but always and necessarily part of various social networks, starting of course with the family.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Clever, and true in terms of this world, but in the eternal perspective true glory is forever and worldly obscurity doesn't matter.

Freya Stark, explorer and writer (1893-1993)

Few are the giants of the soul who actually feel that the human race is their family circle. -Freya Stark, explorer and writer (1893-1993)

I would say that we shouldn't regret not being one of these giants. Only God should rightly consider the entire human race the family circle. For the rest of us, it is right to make distinctions. We have a greater responsibility to our actual family than for others, and beyond them other circles that we owe some sort of care beyond what we owe to anonymous humanity.