Great artistic talent in any direction... is hardly inherent to the man. It comes and goes; it is often possessed only for a short phase in his life; it hardly ever colors his character as a whole and has nothing to do with the moral and intellectual stuff of the mind and soul. Many great artists, perhaps most great artists, have been poor fellows indeed, whom to know was to despise.

And because of our selfishness, we will be condemned to the worst torture humankind ever invented for itself: loneliness.

Paulo Coelho

My grandmother was a kind of Scarsdale, New York, society woman, best known in her day as the author of the 1959 book 'Growing Your Own Way: An Informal Guide for Teen-Agers' - this despite being a person whose parenting style made Joan Crawford's wire hangers look like pool noodles.

Sloane Crosley

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to an idealised past.

Robertson Davies, A Voice from t

Rather would I have the love songs of romantic ages, rather Don Juan and Madame Venus, rather an elopement by ladder and rope on a moonlight night, followed by the father's curse, mother's moans, and the moral comments of neighbors, than correctness and propriety measured by yardsticks.

Emma Goldman

Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.

Thomas Carlyle

A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him; wherever he goes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Unto Thee, O Lord, the Soul of Creation cried: For whom didst Thou create me, and who so fashioned me? Feuds and fury, violence and the insolence of might have oppressed me; None have I to protect me save Thee; Command for me then the blessings of a settled, peaceful life.

Zoroaster

A state that denies its citizens their basic rights becomes a danger to its neighbors as well: internal arbitrary rule will be reflected in arbitrary external relations. The suppression of public opinion, the abolition of public competition for power and its public exercise opens the way for the state power to arm itself in any way it sees fit. A state that does not hesitate to lie to its own people will not hesitate to lie to other states.

Vaclav Havel

Such are the heights of wickedness to which men are driven by religion.

Lucretius

Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.

Rabindranath Tagore

Leadership comes in small acts as well as bold strokes.

Carly Fiorina

As is our confidence, so is our capacity.

William Hazlitt