Competition between footmen gave way during the second half of the 18th century to men racing against time over long distances. 'Pedestrians' (as the walkers were called) could win a very handsome fee for walking dozens -- or even hundreds -- of miles within a proscribed time. Side bets were, of course, very welcome.One of the more popular goals involved covering at least 100 miles in less than 24 hours. Those meeting this goal were (and still are) called Centurions.(quoted by Phil Howell in A Brief History of Racewalking in the United States, North American Racewalking Foundation)

Some great people are leaders and others are more lucky, in the right place at the right time. I'd put myself in the latter category.

Steve Wozniak

For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!

Edward Abbey

It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion.

Yves SaintLaurent

Such is the miraculous nature of the future of exiles: what is first uttered in the impotence of an overheated apartment becomes the fate of nations.

Salman Rushdie

I would say readers can trust my work more than anyone else's.

Joseph J. Ellis

Nobel Prize money is a lifebelt thrown to a swimmer who has already reached the shore in safety.

George Bernard Shaw

She had not heard him enter, and hardly realized his presence there. She was yawning, and he saw the red interior of her mouth as if it had been a snake's. She had stretched one arm so high above her coiled-up cable of hair that he could see its satin delicacy above the sunburn; her face was flushed with sleep, and her eyelids hung heavy over their pupils. The brim-fulness of her nature breathed from her. It was a moment when a woman's soul is more incarnate than at any other time; when the most spiritual beauty bespeaks itself flesh; and sex takes the outside place in the presentation.

Thomas Hardy

Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call.

Sylvia Plath

People are going deaf because music is played louder and louder, but because they're going deaf, it has to be played louder still.

Milan Kundera

God is clever, but not dishonest.

Albert Einstein

Where God builds a church the devil builds a chapel.

Martin Luther

It is in the ordinary events of every day that we develop the proactive capacity to handle the extraordinary pressures of life. It's how we make and keep commitments, how we handle a traffic jam, how we respond to an irate customer or a disobedient child. It's how we view our problems and where we focus our energies. It's the language we use.

Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits