Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil

Hannah Arendt

“Under conditions of terror most people will comply but some people will not… No more is required, and no more can reasonably be asked, for this planet to remain a place fit for human habitation.”

Classic, immensely timely read on the normalization of evil and our only effective antidote to it:

Present Concerns

C.S. Lewis

“The tempter always works on some real weakness in our own system of values: offers food to some need which we have starved.”

C.S. Lewis on equality and our core misconception about democracy:

Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit

Parker J. Palmer

“Full engagement in the movement called democracy requires no less of us than full engagement in the living of our own lives.”

Parker Palmer on holding the tension of our differences in a creative way and healing the heart of democracy:

Songwriters On Songwriting: Revised And Expanded

Paul Zollo

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen’s unpublished verses on democracy and its redemptions – a generous reminder that we must aim for “a revelation in the heart rather than a confrontation or a call-to-arms or a defense":

Conversations with James Baldwin

“Those who tell you ‘Do not put too much politics in your art’ are not being honest. If you look very carefully you will see that they are the same people who are quite happy with the situation as it is… What they are saying is don’t upset the system.”

Chinua Achebe and James Baldwin’s fantastic forgotten conversation about beauty, morality, and the political power of art:

The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream

Courtney E. Martin

“That’s the thing about success… it’s only satisfying if it’s defined by you and influenced most deeply by the people you love and trust.”

Wonderful and necessary read on reimagining our ethos of success and reclaiming our sense of “enough”

Essays of E. B. White

E. B. White

“Most people think of peace as a state of Nothing Bad Happening, or Nothing Much Happening. Yet if peace is to overtake us and make us the gift of serenity and well-being, it will have to be the state of Something Good Happening.”

E.B. White, writing half a century ago, on weapons, justice, and what it really takes to live in a peaceful world – beautiful read, strikingly pertinent to our predicament of gun control:

Free Thought and Official Propaganda

Bertrand Russell

“The protection of minorities is vitally important; and even the most orthodox of us may find himself in a minority some day, so that we all have an interest in restraining the tyranny of majorities.”

Bertrand Russell, writing 100 years ago and timelier than ever, on freedom of thought and our only effective self-defense against propaganda:

Nobody Knows My Name

James Baldwin

“We made the world we’re living in and we have to make it over.”

James Baldwin on how we imprison ourselves, what freedom really means, and how we can attain it:

Tomorrow Is Now

Eleanor Roosevelt

“In the long run there is no more liberating, no more exhilarating experience than to determine one’s position, state it bravely, and then act boldly. Action brings with it its own courage, its own energy, a growth of self-confidence that can be acquired in no other way.”

Half a century later, Eleanor Roosevelt’s ideas about the power of personal conviction and our individual role in social change are timelier than ever:

A Dialogue

James Baldwin & Nikki Giovanni

“If you don’t understand yourself you don’t understand anybody else.”

Nikki Giovanni’s forgotten, brilliant conversation with James Baldwin about the language of love and what it really means to be empowered:

A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King

“Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives.”

MLK on 6 principles of his philosophy of nonviolence and how the ancient Greek notion of “agape” can help us be kinder to one another:

Letter from the Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality… Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Martin Luther King on the 4 steps to successful nonviolent rebellion — so much timeless wisdom for social change and justice today:

Crowds and Power

Elias Canetti

“Direction is essential for the continuing existence of the crowd… A crowd exists so long as it has an unattained goal.”

Nobel laureate Elias Canetti on the psychology of crowds – fascinating read:

Indira Gandhi’s Father on Power, Privilege, and Kindness: Letters to His 10-Year-Old Daughter

Jawaharlal Nehru

Notes on the moral foundations of becoming a great leader and a great human, bittersweet in history’s hindsight