We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

He presents me with what is always an acceptable gift who brings me news of a great thought before unknown. He enriches me without impoverishing himself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Poetry is above all a concentration of the power of language, which is the power of our ultimate relationship to everything in the universe.

Adrienne Rich

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.

Josh Billings

He who flees judgment confesses his guilt.

Anon., Legal maxim

Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

A. A. Milne

This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.

Samuel Johnson

The truth, I am convinced, is that there is no longer a poetical audience among the higher class of minds, that moral, political, and physical science have entirely withdrawn from poetry the attention of all whose attention is worth having; and that the poetical reading public being composed of the mere dregs of the intellectual community, the most sufficing passport to their favour must rest on the mixture of a little easily-intelligible portion of mawkish sentiment with an absolute negation of reason and knowledge.

Thomas Love Peacock, letter to S

We must annex those people. We can afflict them with our wise and beneficent government. We can introduce the novelty of thieves, all the way up from street-car pickpockets to municipal robbers and Government defaulters, and show them how amusing it is to arrest them and try them and then turn them loose -- some for cash and some for political influence. We can make them ashamed of their simple and primitive justice. We can make that little bunch of sleepy islands the hottest corner on earth, and array it in the moral splendor of our high and holy civilization. Annexation is what the poor islanders need. Shall we to men benighted, the lamp of life deny?

Mark Twain

To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.

Pablo Picasso

When we have begun to take charge of our lives, to own ourselves, there is no longer any need to ask permission of someone.

George O'Neil

I had a great drama teacher, and he sort of made out drama school as this incredibly difficult thing to get into: 6,000 people apply every year, and some of the schools only have 12 places. It's a phenomenally difficult thing to get into. And that excited me - I wanted that challenge.

Jeremy Irvine

Human identity is the most fragile thing that we have, and it's often only found in moments of truth.

Alan Rudolph