By Jim Lotz
Published in September 2009
“He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars. General good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite and flatterer.”
– William Blake, Jerusalem, 1815
“The ruling passion, be it what it will; The ruling passion conquers reason still.”
– Alexander Pope
“Excellence is the result of: caring more than others think wise; risking more than others think safe; dreaming more than others think practical and; expecting more than others think possible.”
– VanCity Community Foundation Mission Statement
“.. . top down bureaucracy-driven plans for regional development have fallen into disrepute and policy makers know they must consider new approaches.”
– Economic Council of Canada, From the Bottom Up: The Community Economic Development Approach, Ottawa, 1990. (Shortly after the council issued this “statement,” the Mulroney government abolished it.)
“Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic babble of a few years back.”
– John Maynard Keynes
“Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
– Leonard Cohen
“The key to innovative ventures like New Dawn lies in identifying the gifts that people possess and determining what each person has to offer to the collective good. We have had no luck in getting people to do things they are not good at.”
– Rankin McSween, President, New Dawn Enterprises, Canada’s first community development corporation, incorporated in 1976
“All professions are conspiracies against the laity.”
– George Bernard Shaw
