In high school, we studied a lot of poetical forms. I was really interested in the math that was involved and the strange live break ups. That gave me a great amount of respect for a rhymed stanza.

Hurt a fly! He would not for the world: he's pitiful to flies even. Sing, says he, and tease me still, if that's your way, poor insect.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Back then, a half-a-century ago, the situation was totally different. Economically, we were practically on our knees, and politically, we were still excluded from the community of nations. Today, in this respect, we have a totally different and much more stable basis.

Franz Beckenbauer

Remember to breathe. It is after all, the secret of life.

Gregory Maguire

So you wish to conquer in the Olympic games, my friend? And I too, by the Gods, and a fine thing it would be! But first mark the conditions and the consequences, and then set to work. You will have to put yourself under discipline; to eat by rule, to avoid cakes and sweetmeats; to take exercise at the appointed hour whether you like it or no, in cold and heat; to abstain from cold drinks and from wine at your will; in a word, to give yourself over to the trainer as to a physician. Then in the conflict itself you are likely enough to dislocate your wrist or twist your ankle, to swallow a great deal of dust, or to be severely thrashed, and, after all these things, to be defeated.

Epictetus

It resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated, often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.

Sydney Smith

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone.

Samuel Johnson

I don't read Science Fiction.

Brent Spiner

Ideas control the world.

James Garfield

Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It meets a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts that is something on which to pride yourself but poverty itself is romanticized by fools.

J. K. Rowling

What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

Abraham Lincoln

Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Proving I'm a good mother is the one achievement I'm most proud of. It's brought out the best in me.

Sheena Easton