Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.

Any change, any loss, does not make us victims. Others can shake you, surprise you, disappoint you, but they can't prevent you from acting, from taking the situation you're presented with and moving on. No matter where you are in life, no matter what your situation, you can always do something. You always have a choice and the choice can be power.

Blaine Lee, The Power Principle

I went down the street to the 24hour grocery. When I got there, the guy was locking the front door. I said, Hey, the sign says you're open 24 hours. He said, Yes, but not in a row.

Steven Wright

The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive.

Lionel Trilling

Philanthropist. A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.

Ambrose Bierce

My idea is always to avoid nostalgia.

Miuccia Prada

Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision. The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part of his creation.

Norman Mailer

A man's own self is the last person to believe in him, and is harder to cheat than the rest of the world.

George Bernard Shaw

The price of being the best is having to be the best.

Terry Pratchett

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

Samuel Johnson

A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable.

H. L. Mencken

My only fault is that I don't realize how great I really am.

Muhammad Ali

O! beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on

William Shakespeare