Four books have especially sustained my activism over the years: The Analects of Confucius, Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind, Wallersteln's The Modern World System and Lewis Mumford's The City in History.

When I was a child, my father used to use "Confucius said" homilies in his efforts to get us to do the right things in our relationships with one another. As I grew older, I discovered gems of wisdom in Confucius for myself. For example, Confucius helped me look in the mirror because he understood that everyone is a "work in progress."