I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship.

One of the marks of a gift is to have the courage of it.

Katherine Anne Porter

We have been educated to such a fine -- or dull -- point that we are incapable of enjoying something new, something different, until we are first told what it's all about. We don't trust our five senses; we rely on our critics and educators, all of whom are failures in the realm of creation. In short, the blind lead the blind. It's the democratic way.

Henry Miller

When young we are faithful to individuals, when older we grow loyal to situations and to types.

Cyril Connolly

Men say I am a saint losing himself in politics. The fact is that I am a politician trying my hardest to become a saint.

Mahatma Gandhi

Love implies anger. The man who is angered by nothing cares about nothing.

Edward Abbey

To have opinions is to sell out to yourself. To have no opinion is to exist. To have every opinion is to be a poet.

Fernando Pessoa

All too many Muslims fail to grasp Islam, which teaches one to be lenient towards others and to understand their value systems, knowing that these are tolerated by Islam as a religion.

Abdurrahman Wahid

There is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny.

Friedrich von Schiller

Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt

Benjamin Franklin

People are meant to go through life two by two. 'Tain't natural to be lonesome.

Thornton Wilder

As an example of just how useless these philosophers are for any practice in life there is Socrates himself, the one and only wise man, according to the Delphic Oracle. Whenever he tried to do anything in public he had to break off amid general laughter. While he was philosophizing about clouds and ideas, measuring a flea's foot and marveling at a midge's humming, he learned nothing about the affairs of ordinary life.

Desiderius Erasmus

All who joy would win must share it. Happiness was born a Twin.

Lord (George Gordon) Byron