America is not a democracy, it's an absolute monarchy ruled by King Kid. In a nation of immigrants, the child is automatically more of an American than his parents. Americans regard children as what Mr. Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs called betters. Aping their betters, American adults do their best to turn themselves into children. Puerility exercises droit de seigneur everywhere.

No great wisdom can be reached without sacrifice.

C.S. Lewis

There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A calcined, scalped, rasped, scraped, flayed, broiled, powdered, leprous, blotched, mangy, grimy, parboiled country without trees, water, grass, fields ... it is infinitely liker hell than earth, and one looks for tails among the people.

Algernon Charles Swinburne, desc

I learned much more about acting from philosophy courses, psychology courses, history and anthropology than I ever learned in acting class.

Tim Robbins

We can no longer allow Americas dependence on foreign oil to compromise our energy security. Instead, we must invest in inventing new ways to power our cars and our economy. Ill put my faith in American science and ingenuity any day before I depend on Saudi Arabia.

Senator John Kerry

When I was a fireman I was in a lot of burning buildings. It was a great job, the only job I ever had that compares with the thrill of acting. Before going into a fire, there's the same surge of adrenaline you get just before the camera rolls.

Steve Buscemi

The whole disaster was only made possible by the fact that there already existed in the world a similar megalomania, allied to this one in race, to wit, the Jewish.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Let your family, staff, and friends know that you're still the same person, despite all the publicity and notoriety that accompanies your position.

Donald Rumsfeld

This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world.

Ai Weiwei

We associate the North Atlantic with cod. The motto of Newfoundland used to be 'In cod we trust.' It was a joke, but it was essentially true. But there is no cod anymore. And that's extraordinary. It's all because of either greed or politics - Canadian politics.

Simon Winchester

What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair, eternal death.

William Blake

If there were only turnips and potatoes in the world, someone would complain that plants grow the wrong way.

G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenb