Every morning I woke in dread, waiting for the day nurse to go on her rounds and announce from the list of names in her hand whether or not I was for shock treatment, the new and fashionable means of quieting people and of making them realize that orders are to be obeyed and floors are to be polished without anyone protesting and faces are to be made to be fixed into smiles and weeping is a crime.

Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame obtained with labour, for mankind employed, and then, when most you share it, best enjoyed.

Alfred North Whitehead

I think my purpose was just to get out and sing. I love to sing. I wasn't even in it for the - you know, the prize. I was, like, 'Hey, man, I'm going to sing.

Fantasia Barrino

Aging in women is 'unbeautiful' since women grow more powerful with time, and since the links between generations of women must always be broken.

Naomi Wolf

Witnesses in my dream can place me in my bed, asleep, at the time of the murder.

Jarod Kintz

I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn't have one. So I got a cake.

Mitch Hedberg

Your column is a pack of damn lies, a reader wrote to William Safire about a political piece he did in the New York Times.Brushing aside the stern criticism, Safire immediately debated whether it should be damn, the way it sounds, or damned, as the past participle of the verb, to damn. The ed on some words is simply slipping away, he points out. We're seeing more barbecue chicken, whip cream and corn beef. His conclusion: Ears are sloppy and eyes are precise; accordingly, speech can be loose but writing should be tight.http://extras.denverpost.com/books/book23.htm

William Safire, from a column by

Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways.

J.K. Rowling

Men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.

Thucydides

Marriage - a book of which the first chapter is written in poetry and the remaining chapters in prose.

Beverley Nichols

The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

I don't know what is truth,but I can tell you how to find it!

Jean Jacques Rousseau

I have never denied my background or my culture. I have taught my child to embrace her Mexican heritage, to love my first language, Spanish, to learn about Mexican history, music, folk art, food, and even the Mexican candy I grew up with.

Salma Hayek