Destiny is real. And she's not mild-mannered. She will come around and hit you in the face and knock you over and before you know what hit you, you're naked- stripped of everything you thought you knew and everything you thought you didn't know- and there you are! A bloody nose, bruises all over you, and naked. And it's the most beautiful thing.

Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit.

Ansel Adams

I love snow, snow, and all the forms of radiant frost.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Mere change is not growth. Growth is the synthesis of change and continuity, and where there is no continuity there is no growth.

C.S. Lewis

Well, I still write poetry, but I wouldn't call myself a poet.

David Duchovny

We should be therefore supporting a larger Europe, and in so doing we should strive to expand the zone of peace and prosperity in the world which is the necessary foundation for a stable international system in which our leadership could be fruitfully exercised.

Zbigniew Brzezinski

I explained to the lady my love for John and his work, and she made it possible for me to purchase one of the 24 proofs, the one for 'I'm So Tired,' which I have on my piano at home.

Arthur Godfrey

If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work.

William Shakespeare

I do not now begin,--I still adore Her whom I early cherish'd in my breast; Then once again with prudence dispossess'd, And to whose heart I'm driven back once more. The love of Petrarch, that all-glorious love, Was unrequited, and, alas, full sad...(translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring)

Johann von Goethe, (poems)

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

Bertrand Russell

And it was back in the mid-1980s, and as I point out in a piece, that was when we are spending about eight percent of our gross domestic product on health care. And even then, we had the impression that so much of the excessive, aggressive medical treatment that took place at the end of life was not only unnecessary but it was cruel.

Richard Dooling

You can't be afraid of failure and you can't be afraid of success, because either one gets in the way of your work.

Dave Van Ronk