The dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.

People have often said to me, 'Surely when you are with the tramps they don't really accept you as one of themselves? Surely they notice that you are different--notice the difference of accent?' etc., etc. As a matter of fact, a fair proportion of tramps, well over a quarter I should say, notice nothing of the kind. To begin with, many people have no ear for accent and judge you entirely by your clothes. I was often struck by this fact when I was begging at back doors. Some people were obviously surprised by my 'educated' accent, others completely failed to notice it; I was dirty and ragged and that was all they saw. Again, tramps come from all parts of the British Isles and the variation in English accents is enormous. A tramp is used to hearing all kinds of accents among his mates, some of them so strange to him that he can hardly understand them, and a man from, say, Cardiff or Durham or Dublin does not necessarily know which of the south English accents is an 'educated' one. In any case men with 'educated' accents, though rare among tramps, are not unknown. But even when tramps are aware that you are of different origin from themselves, it does not necessarily alter their attitude. From their point of view all that matters is that you, like themselves, are 'on the bum'. And in that world it is not done to ask too many questions. You can tell people the history of your life if you choose, and most tramps do so on the smallest provocation, but you are under no compulsion to tell it and whatever story you tell will be accepted without question. Even a bishop could be at home among tramps if he wore the right clothes; and even if they knew he was a bishop it might not make any difference, provided that they also knew or believed that he was genuinely destitute. Once you are in that world and seemingly of it, it hardly matters what you have been in the past. It is a sort of world-within-a-world where everyone is equal, a small squalid democracy...

George Orwell, The Road to Wigan

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences

Thomas Jefferson

At the punch-bowl's brink, let the thirsty think, what they say in Japan: first the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes the man!

Edward Rowland Sill

A man's life is interesting primarily when he has failed -- I well know. For it's a sign that he tried to surpass himself.

Georges Clemenceau

Tennis was never work for me, tennis was fun. And the tougher the battle and the longer the match, the more fun I had.

Jimmy Connors

The best way to win against the intolerable is to tolerate them, for this they have seldom dealt with. Your indulgence may soften their malice and open their eyes to more honorable ways.

Bryant H. McGill

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Eternal vigilance is the price of libertypower is ever stealing from the many to the few. The hand entrusted with power becomes the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot: only by unintermitted Agitation can a people be kept sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.

Wendell Phillips

We have grown used to money. The handling, the increase of it, is the chief business of life now with most of us.

Rebecca Harding Davis

I see a lot of connections between folk and punk music just because they're both subcorporate music - I mean, traditionally.

Ani DiFranco

A rich man's joke is always funny.

Thomas Edward Brown

I feel all these jitters when I wake up in the morning. Just energy jitters. When I'm having sex, I don't have that.

Alyssa Milano