Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided.

A lifetime of happiness? No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth.

George Bernard Shaw

Well, you know, I was raised by a 1970s feminist. My mom had a consciousness-raising group. I used to sit at the top of the stairs and listen to them.

Ayelet Waldman

Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.

Thomas Jefferson

The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death.

Desiderius Erasmus

Mathematicians are like Frenchman: whatever you say to them they translate Into their own language, and forthwith it is something entirely different.

Johann von Goethe

For youth, sexual love is whim; for the aged, luxury.

Bill Gaede

The hard sayings of our Lord are wholesome to those only who find them hard.

C.S. Lewis

All cynics are disappointed idealists. The more stars in the eyes, the harder the fall.

Josh Lanyon

There was a pleasant party of barge people round the fire. You might not have thought it pleasant, but they did; for they were all friends or acquaintances, and they liked the same sort of things, and talked the same sort of talk. This is the real secret of pleasant society.

E. Nesbit

About the time I turned 50, I experienced the profound biological change that often accompanies women at that age. Also, I put two kids in college and lost both of my parents, so I'm no longer somebody's daughter.

Jane Pauley

This was the kiss I had waited for so long - a kiss born by the river of our childhood, when we didn't yet know what love meant. A kiss that had been suspended in the air as we grew, that had traveled in the world in the sovenier of a medal, and that had remained hidden behind piles of books. A kiss that had been lost and now was found. In the moment of that kiss were years of searching, disillusionment and impossible dreams.

Paulo Coelho

Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God.

Billy Graham