There is almost no country in Africa where it is not essential to know to which tribe, or which subgroup of which tribe, the president belongs. From this single piece of information you can trace the lines of patronage and allegiance that define the state.

My parents have a strong work ethic, but their attitude to life, their philosophy, is: 'whatever makes you happy.'

Sally Hawkins

Old elephants limp off to the hills to die; old Americans go out to the highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars.

Hunter S. Thompson

Beauty is but the sensible image of the Infinite. Like truth and justice it lives within us; like virtue and the moral law it is a companion of the soul.

George Bancroft

It is the rooted instinct in men to admire what is better and more beautiful than themselves.

James Russell Lowell

I took the process of doing as much myself as I could like a duck to water. I set up my own label and publishing, etc, and it was a fun learning curve two decades ago.

David Knopfler

I shall state silences more competently than ever a better man spangled the butterflies of vertigo.

Samuel Beckett

American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.

Diane Wakoski

If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

I am very sorry to know and hear how unreverently that most precious jewel, the Word of God, is disputed, rhymed, sung and jangled in every ale-house and tavern, contrary to the true meaning and doctrine of the same.

Edward VIII

Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient.

Johann von Goethe

There is no method but to be very intelligent.

T. S. Eliot

The mind moves in the direction of our currently dominant thoughts

Earl Nightingale