Quotes

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Quotes by WNBR participants, quotes to inspire riders etc...

Quotes from World Naked Bike Ride organizers and participants

"...inject the hearts of our neighbourhoods with the reality of our beautiful bodies which have developed over millions of years into their current perfect beingness. Join hundreds of naked compatriots in a free, non-sexual, fun bike ride."
– Aurora, WNBR Chicago

"WNBR is the most exhilerating cycling experience since taking off your training wheels."
– Daniel Johnson, WNBR Seattle

"Be the unabashed vehicle of the revolution! Bare skin beats painted metal! The shame is on oil-dependency, not on us!"
- Daniel Johnson, WNBR Seattle

"The Auckland World Naked Bike Ride’s purpose was to draw attention to oil dependency and the negative social and environmental impacts of a car dominated culture. Last year 250 Aucklanders were killed by vehicle emissions, and 94 people died in car accidents on the roads of Auckland alone."
– Simon Oosterman, WNBR Auckland (NZ) organizer, union worker and climate justice campaigner

"Our message to the world is one of simplification, human harmony and love. For a future to exist for tomorrows generations, we have to stop wasting the life blood energy of the Earth, stop fighting and killing in the name of consumerist wealth accumulation and learn to love and respect all life on this planet."
– Conrad Schmidt, founder of The Work Less Party and Artists for Peace and WNBR and organizer for WNBR Vancouver, BC

Inspirational quotes

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
– Apple Computers, from 'Think Different' advertising campaign

“Everyone knew it was impossible, except for one idiot who went ahead and did it”
– Marcel Pagnol, film maker, 1895-1974

"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours"
– Richard Bach, from Illusions

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."
– William Hutchinson Murray

Body-positive quotes

"Laws against public nudity stem from people's unease with the human body. It makes people uneasy that others are comfortable enough to be naked in public, when they are not."
– Katie Mann, from article in Going Natural, Vol 17, No 2

"A child who has never been allowed to see his parents and brothers and sisters naked sees nudity as something shocking"
– Dr Helga Fleischhauer-Hardt, 'Show Me' (New York: St Martin's Press, 1975)

"Being natural and matter-of-fact about nudity prevents your children from developing an attitude of shame or disgust about the human body. If parents are very secretive about their bodies and go to great lengths to prevent their children from ever seeing a buttock or breast, children will wonder what is so unusual, and even alarming, about human nudity"
– Dr Lee Salk, psychiatrist

"The visual appearance of the human body is our human identity and we should not be forced to fear or hide our identity"
– Vincent Bethell

"Everybody should run through the streets [naked] at least once. If you can do that, chances are you can have a lot of fun in other areas of your life."
– Madonna, singer

"It is an interesting question how far people would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes."
– Henry David Thoreau

Quotes for cycling

"Here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil."
– President George W Bush, State of the Union, 31 January 2006

"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the human race."
– H G Wells

"On Earth the problem had been with cars. The disadvantages involved in pulling lots of black sticky slime out of the ground where it had been safely hidden out of harm's way, turning it into tar to cover the land with, smoke to fill the air with and pouring the rest into the sea, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of being able to get more quickly from one place to another -- particularly when the place you arrived at has probably become, as a result of this, very similar to the place you had left, i.e., covered with tar, full of smoke, and short of fish." --
– Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

"People are looking for places where they're not constantly being confronted with cars. It's just like non-smokers seeking smoke-free space."
– Franziska Eichstaedt-Bohlig, German Green Party

"Watch any TV show, listen to any radio program, look through any magazine or newspaper and you will come across ads showing how cars will make you cool, sexy, popular, respected, at one with nature, safe, etc. The car and oil industries spend billions of dollars each year to promote a benign image of driving, but the function of all this is to assure profits and manipulate consumers, and nothing more."
– Go By Bicycle

"If you see someone you know while riding, it's easy to stop and say hello. Bicycles create public space, enhance street life and build a sense of community"
– Go By Bicycle

"If you stand in a closed garage with a running car, you will die in a matter of minutes. Hundreds of thousands of cars in our cities create dirty, unhealthy air."
– Go By Bicycle

"Terrorist organizations use our gas money. In order to protect political and corporate interests, the United States supports dictatorial regimes in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, which is the number one producer of oil in the world. 15 of the 19 September hijackers were Saudi. Iraq is the second largest producer of oil, and Kuwait the third. Do those countries sound familiar? The government supported Saddam through his worst atrocities, then Saddam began to disobey US orders. That is precisely when he became our enemy."
– Go by Bicycle

Quotes for resistance

"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison"
– Henry David Thoreau

"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience... Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our problem."
– Howard Zinn, 'Failure To Quit'

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth"
– John F Kennedy

"Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of government, yield to it their allegiance and support are ... frequently the most serious obstacles to reform"
– Henry David Thoreau

"Be the change you want to see in the world"
– Mahatma Gandhi