Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

I dislike literary jargon and never use it. Criticism has only one function and that is to help readers read and understand literature. It is not a science, it is an aid to art.

Anne Stevenson

In the history of mankind, fanaticism has caused more harm than vice.

Louis Kronenberger

The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property.

John Locke

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.

Woody Allen

I absolutely refuse to reveal my age. What am I - a car?

Cyndi Lauper

People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.

James Baldwin

All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice.

Joseph De Maistre

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

Napoleon Hill

Probable nor'east to sou'west winds, varying to the soutard and westard and eastard and points between; high and low barometer, sweeping round from place to place; probable areas of rain, snow, hail, and drought, succeeded or preceded by earthquakes with thunder and lightning.

Mark Twain

It is only by the rational use of technology to control and guide what technology is doing that we can keep any hopes of a social life more desirable than our own: or in fact of a social life which is not appalling to imagine.

Carrie P. Snow

The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers.

William James

I have wandered all my life, and I have traveled; the difference between the two is this -- we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

Hilaire Belloc