Insight: “All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

“I think that we’re close to the end of the pandemic phase of this virus and we’re going to enter a more endemic phase. … This Delta wave is the last major wave of infection.” —former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb

“I think you’d be foolish not to want and accept Donald Trump’s endorsement, but you’re going to win not because somebody endorses you. You’re going to win because you focused on making sure inflation gets stopped, making sure people get a job, making sure your kids aren’t indoctrinated on Critical Race Theory, making sure we have safe communities. That’s going to be … [what] people care about.” —Senator Rick Scott

Non sequitur: “I can afford to give up a lot of my current lifestyle to benefit the planet, because I’ll still have a lot left over. A lot of folks don’t have that cushion. So that means that any climate plan worth its salt has to take these inequities into account.” —Barack Obama, who isn’t voluntary giving up a lot of his current lifestyle

D'oh! “Our planet has been wounded by our actions. Those wounds won’t be healed today or tomorrow or the next. But they can be healed.” —Barack Obama, November 8, 2021 | “I am absolutely certain that, generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that … this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” —Barack Obama, June 3, 2008

Spin doctor: “What I hear time and time again from small businesses, large businesses, and workers is that what’s really hurting the economy is actually COVID itself. Millions of workers have gotten sick because of COVID and predictably been pulled out of work. Millions more have had to be quarantined, and think about how disruptive that’s been to businesses.” —Surgeon General Vivek Murthy failing to justify vaccine mandates, which exacerbate hiring troubles

Water under the bridge: “I’m still surprised that some people were surprised when I pointed to the fact that if a highway was built for the purpose of dividing a white and a black neighborhood, or if an underpass was constructed such that a bus carrying mostly black and Puerto Rican kids to a beach … in New York was designed too low for it to pass by, that that obviously reflects racism that went into those design choices. I don’t think we have anything to lose by confronting that simple reality. And I think we have everything to gain by acknowledging it and then dealing with it.” —Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg

Grand delusions: “‘Woke’ is a term pundits are now using as a derogatory euphemism for civil rights & justice. Making up a ‘woke’ problem results in putting civil & voting rights on the backburner. In a year state legislatures are planning out GOP majorities & voter suppression, that’s dangerous. People think Fox News is just about indoctrinating right-wingers, but it’s also about conditioning Dems on what to run away from. Framing racial justice as ‘controversial’ is key to delaying the protection of voting rights (& others) until it’s too late. We shouldn’t indulge it.” —Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Non compos mentis: “Residents and city leaders are searching for answers: should they tolerate burglaries as a part of city living, and focus on barricading homes?” —San Francisco Chronicle

And last… “If we devote ourselves to what we know is right, we will preserve that which matters most.” —Mike Pompeo