A book is an arrangement of twenty-six phonetic symbols, ten numerals, and about eight punctuation marks, and people can cast their eyes over these and envision the eruption of Mount Vesuvius or the Battle of Waterloo.

I am sure that the sad days and happenings were rare, and that I lived the joyous and careless life of other children but just because the happy days were so habitual to me they made no impression upon my mind, and I can no longer recall them.

Pierre Loti

You should not be upset by the sight of wisdom being criticized. Wisdom would not be wisdom if it did not reveal the stupidity of a bad life, and people would not be people if they endured this revelation without criticism.

Leo Tolstoy

An important work of architecture will create polemics.

Richard Meier

For your benefit, learn from our tragedy. It is not a written law that the next victims must be Jews.

Simon Wiesenthal

I worry that no matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up.

Jane Wagner

The resilience of these people is amazing. I am a great believer that the sooner we get things up and running in terms of sport in this area, the better.

Ian Botham

Faith is not a thing which one loses, we merely cease to shape our lives by it.

Georges Bernanos

For a man to strike any women is most brutal, and I, as well as everyone else, think this far worse than any attempt to shoot, which, wicked as it is, is at least more comprehensible and more courageous.

Queen Victoria

I don't think the world is the way we like to think it is. I don't think it's one solid world, but many, thousands upon thousands of them--as many as there are people--because each person perceives the world in his or her own way; each lives in his or her own world. Sometimes they connect, for a moment, or more rarely, for a lifetime, but mostly we are alone, each living in our own world, suffering our small deaths.

Charles de Lint

So the old Copenhagen interpretation needs to be generalized, needs to be replaced by something that can be used for the whole universe, and can be used also in cases where there is plenty of individuality and history.

Murray Gell-Mann

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.

William Shakespeare

Work is life, you know, and without it, there's nothing but fear and insecurity.

John Lennon