Every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of situation because its means are so melodramatically disproportionate to its presumed ends.

Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.

John Donne

For the American people are a very generous people and will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible exception of stupidity.

Will Rogers

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly - spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.

Susan Taylor

Well, I think, by definition, all power has limits.

Hillary Clinton

When I read some of the rules for speaking and writing the English language correctly...I think Any fool can make a rule And every fool will mind it.

Henry David Thoreau

Love is a battle, said Marie-Claude, still smiling. And I plan to go on fighting. To the end.

Milan Kundera

Shall we never have done with that cliche, so stupid that it could only be human, about the sympathy of animals for man when he is unhappy? Animals love happiness almost as much as we do. A fit of crying disturbs them, they'll sometimes imitate sobbing, and for a moment they'll reflect our sadness. But they flee unhappiness as they flee fever, and I believe that in the long run they are capable of boycotting it.

Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Peaceableness toward enemies is an idea that will, of course, continue to be denounced as impractical. It has been too little tried by individuals, much less by nations. It will not readily or easily serve those who are greedy for power. It cannot be effectively used for bad ends. It could not be used as the basis of an empire. It does not afford opportunities for profit. It involves danger to practitioners. It requires sacrifice. And yet it seems to me that it is practical, for it offers the only escape from the logic of retribution. It is the only way by which we can cease to look to war for peace. ... Peaceableness is not passive. It is the ability to act to resolve conflict without violence. If it is not a practical and practicable method, it is nothing. As a practicable method, it reduces helplessness in the face of conflict. In the face of conflict, the peaceable person may find several solutions, the violent person only one.

Wendell Berry, Peaceableness Tow

Brave words. I've heard them before, from thousands of species across thousands of worlds, since long before you were created. But, now they are all Borg.

The Borg Queen

The moment we indulge our affections, the earth is metamorphosed, there is no winter and no night; all tragedies, all ennui s, vanish, all duties even.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A lot of the American press at the time was saying 'just watch what happens when Bertelsmann tries to buy EMI, that will be a moment of truth that will show the Commission's true colors.' Well, that deal never happened either.

Mario Monti