Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to.

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longer a poetical audience among the higher class of minds, that moral, political, and physical science have entirely withdrawn from poetry the attention of all whose attention is worth having; and that the poetical reading public being composed of the mere dregs of the intellectual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

My father opened a restaurant. It's so amazing... it's so freaking delicious, but I'm telling you I gain five pounds every time I go in there.

Lady Gaga

Twenty-five years ago, while an undergraduate at Stanford, I got a job on campus as a lifeguard, deepening a love of swimming and water that has lasted throughout my life. I took the duties seriously and studied the swimmers with professional vigilance, relieved at the end of each day that no emergency rescue had been required. But the greatest challenge of the job was standing poolside in a bathing suit with my body on display.Work began in the locker room, where I changed into my Speedo and surveyed my reflection, assessing what would be on view for the next few hours. I was plagued by self-criticism. I imagined the swimmers judging my shape, until I made myself remember that I was there to guard their lives, not their fantasies. Later I performed my variation of the same ablutions everyone else did, showering and hair washing, the application of lotion and makeup -- preparations for re-entering the other world of walking upright on solid land.

Elizabeth Rosner, "The New York

When angry, count four. When very angry, swear.

Mark Twain

Nobody could've ever known I was positive because I didn't know.

Marc Wallice

Women have a predestination to suffering.

Bela Lugosi

Making excuses is one of a host of self-defeating behaviours and mental patterns that can block your success.

Stephen Richards

For me art and chess are closely related, both are forms in which the self finds beauty and expression.

Vladimir Kramnik

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

Thomas A. Edison

He wants to enslave you.''I shudder at the thought of being free.

Oscar Wilde

I've only been to Ireland once, and I felt I would wake up with voices in my head, almost like music, and that if I were a songwriter, I would be very inspired.

Steven Patrick Morrissey

The future lay before him, inevitable but invisible.

John Green