Ancient recipients of instant news probably couldn't do very much about it, for instance. Xerxes would still need three months to get his army together, and he might not get home for years.

I got attention by being funny at school, pretending to be retarded, and jumping around with a deformed hand.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Goals that are not written down are just wishes.

Source Unknown

Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.

Donald Rumsfeld

He teaches me to be good that does me good.

Thomas Fuller

I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me-spiritually and financially.

Denzel Washington

THERE was a man in our town, and he was wondrous rich; He gave away his millions to the colleges and sich; And people cried: The hypocrite! He ought to understand The ones who really need him are the children of this land. When Andrew Croesus built a home for children who were sick, The people said they rather thought he did it as a trick, And writers said: He thinks about the drooping girls and boys, But what about conditions with the men whom he employs? There was a man in our town who said that he would share His profits with his laborers, for that was only fair, And people said: Oh, isn't he the shrewd and foxy gent? It cost him next to nothing for that free advertisement. There was a man in our town who had the perfect plan To do away with poverty and other ills of man, But he feared the public jeering, and the folks who would defame him, So he never told the plan he had, and I can hardly blame him.

Franklin Pierce Adams, So Shines

We prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form and to any people whatever

Thomas Jefferson

Well, I can't eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One must eat muffins quite calmly, it is the only way to eat them.

Oscar Wilde

I don't like when people say 'I can't believe I wasted the whole day reading.' Diving into another world to free your mind is hardly a waste.

Chris Stocking

A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.

Ernest Hemingway

A full-dressed ecclesiastic is a sort of go-cart of divinity; an ethical automaton. A clerical prig is, in general, a very dangerous as well as contemptible character. The utmost that those who thus habitually confound their opinions and sentiments with the outside coverings of their bodies can aspire to, is a negative and neutral character, like wax-work figures, where the dress is done as much to the life as the man, and where both are respectable pieces of pasteboard, or harmless compositions of fleecy hosiery.

William Hazlitt

Like many of you, I've always been slightly obsessed with vampires, dating back to the prime-time series 'Dark Shadows,' which I followed avidly as a kid.

Bill Condon