Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice can not sleep forever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference!

When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you'd like them to be.

Leo Tolstoy

I won't compare ants and people, but ants give us a useful model of how single members of a community can become so organized that they end up resembling, in effect, one big collective brain. Our own exploding population and communication technology are leading us that way.

Lewis Thomas

He knows very little of mankind who expects, by any facts or reasoning, to convince a determined party man.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

Writing means not just staring ugliness in the face, but finding a way to embrace it.

Veronica Roth

As I have traveled throughout my Congressional district, the one thing I heard loud and clear was simply please stop spending money you do not have, rein in spending, live within a budget.

Tim Scott

An earned compliment costs nothing, but its returns are immeasurable. Very humanly, when we are complimented, when our efforts are appreciated, most of us will usually strive to perform even better down the line. What a return on the investment of delivering a few earned words of praise!

G. Kingsley Ward

Revolutions go not backward.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I do not want a honeymoon with you. I want a good marriage. I want progress, and I want problemsolving which requires my best efforts and also your best efforts. I have no need to learn how Congress speaks for the people. As President, I intend to listen. But I also intend to listen to the people themselvesall the peopleas I promised last Friday. I want to be sure that we are all tuned in to the real voice of America.

Gerald R. Ford

Fortunately art is a community effort - a small but select community living in a spiritualized world endeavoring to interpret the wars and the solitudes of the flesh.

Allen Ginsberg

A hero is somebody who voluntarily walks into the unknown.

Tom Hanks

Now that I'm a client, I understand what a jerk I was.

Jay Chiat

Mentally speaking, it sucks, man. Who wants to prepare their whole life and have it all taken away by some guy who just made a bad pass? But that's the beauty of the sport as well. Anything can happen.

Apolo Anton Ohno