Richard Francis Burton

Burton's best-known achievements include traveling in disguise to Mecca, an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (also commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after Andrew Lang's abridgement), bringing the Kama Sutra to publication in English, and journeying with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Burton extensively criticized colonial policies (to the detriment of his career) in his works and letters. He was a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices and ethnography.
via en.wikipedia.org

If— - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

The constant is education

There is still much debate in regards to best practices on how to best tackle worldwide poverty alleviation. However, one thing is constant in regards to best practices. That constant is education. Hence the reason why B2P has focused on education and training, and the propagation of technical manuals, and footbridge building text books.[5] However, education by itself is not enough to accelerate economic growth.[5] Capital is needed for business start-ups and infrastructure.

as seen in Bridges to Prosperity

Why the hell should anyone feel proud about owning a phone?

"Why the hell should anyone feel proud about owning phone? It's not your relative, it's not something you've created and it's not even difficult nor an accomplishment to own one. It's just a mass-produced phone; nothing more. All this bullshit about how consumers should feel proud to own the latest iGadget is pathetic and really does demonstrate how easily manipulated and small minded you sheep are.
At least Buddhism teaches respect for others rather the egotistical snobbery on display here." Youtube comment about sweden's apple store opening