If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises. I have not campaigned either for the Presidency or the Vice Presidency. I have not subscribed to any partisan platform. I am indebted to no man, and only to one womanmy dear wifeas I begin this very difficult job.

We know from daily life that we exist for other people first of all, for whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends.

Albert Einstein

An appreciation for irony.

Christopher Hitchens

Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.

John Keats

Only the really plain people know about love - the very fascinating ones try so hard to create an impression that they soon exhaust their talents.

Katharine Hepburn

There are times when you just get down, you feel like nobody likes you. We're in high school forever. It's just what we do with it.

Rene Russo

We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their faces away.

Walker Percy

There is no one giant step that does it. It's a lot of little steps.

Peter A. Cohen

Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy.

Sigmund Freud

As for myself, may the sweet Muses, as Virgil says, bear me away to their holy places where sacred streams do flow, beyond the reach of anxiety and care, and free from the obligation of performing each day some task that goes against the grain. May I no longer have anything to do with the mad racket and the hazards of the forum, or tremble as I try a fall with white-faced Fame. I do not want to be roused from sleep by the clatter of morning callers or by some breathless messenger from the palace; I do not care, in drawing my will, to give a money-pledge for its safe execution through anxiety as to what is to happen afterwards; I wish for no larger estate than I can leave to the heir of my own free choice. Some day or other the last hour will strike also for me, and my prayer is that my effigy may be set up beside my grave, not grim and scowling, but all smiles and garlands, and that no one shall seek to honour my memory either by a motion in the senate or by a petition to the Emperor.

Tacitus

Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own contemplation.

John Jay Chapman

A man's calling is written on his true heart, and he discovers it when he enters the frontier of his deep desires.

John Eldredge

Giving materialistically is the soft option, but when you give from what you do for others then your reward is immeasurable contentment.

Stephen Richards