A Free Mind

"No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a cold be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. - John Donne, Meditation XVII (Victor Hugo makes a donkey meditate and apostrophize thus:) My brother, man if you would know the truth, We both are by the same dull walls shut in; The gate is massive and the dungeon strong. But you look through the keyhole at beyond, And call this knowledge; yet have not at hand The key wherein to turn the fatal lock. Ideas grow quickly when watered by the blood of martyrs. - Guiseppe Mazzini"