A commercial society whose members are essentially ascetic and indifferent in social ritual has to be provided with blueprints and specifications for evoking the right tone for every occasion.

I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth.

Jon Krakauer

How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on the mountaintop it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make---leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents or piled stone---we all dwell in a house of one room---the world with a firmament for its roof---and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track.

John Muir, John of the Mountains

Mysterious language is not a sign of wisdom. The wiser a person is, the simpler the language he uses to express his thoughts.

Leo Tolstoy

Communism is the opiate of the intellectuals with no cure except as a guillotine might be called a cure for dandruff.

Clare Boothe Luce, "Newsweek", J

He mastered whatever was not worth the knowing.

James Russell Lowell

What torments my soul is its loneliness. The more it expands among friends and the daily habits or pleasures, the more, it seems to me, it flees me and retires into its fortress. The poet who lives in solitude, but who produces much, is the one who enjoys those treasures we bear in our bosom, but which forsake us when we give ourselves to others. When one yields oneself completely to one's soul, it opens itself to one, and then it is that the capricious thing allows one the greatest of good fortunes... that of sympathizing with others, of studying itself, of painting itself constantly in its works.

Eugene Delacroix

Her voice is full of money.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The judge weighs the arguments and puts a brave face on the matter, and since there must be a decision, decides as he can, and hopes he has done justice and given satisfaction to the community

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I feel like I don't watch that many shows with death.

Lena Dunham

I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.

Clarence Budington Kelland

Make a difference about something other than yourselves.

Toni Morrison

My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.

Winston Churchill