I'm not a combative person. My long experience has taught me to resolve conflict by raising the issues before I or others burn their boats.

Justice, Sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. Wherever her temple stands, and so long as it is duly honoured, there is a foundation for social security; general happiness and the improvement and progress of our race. And whoever labours on this edifice with usefulness and distinction, whoever clears its foundations, strenthens its pillars, adores its entablatures or contributes to raise its august dome, still higher in the skies, connects himself in name and fame and character with that which is and must be as durable as the freedom of human society.

Daniel Webster, funeral oration

Shall I ask you how the church is to be filled, if a man is neither to take orders with a living, nor without?

Jane Austen

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

Henry Ward Beecher

I'm trying not to look too far ahead. All I'm thinking is one shot at a time, one hole at a time, and that's what I want to keep doing.

Michelle Mcgann

A committee is an animal with four back legs.

John le Carre

For this reason, the question whether miracles occur can never be answered simply by experience. Every event which might claim to be a miracle is, in the last resort, something presented to our senses, something seen, heard, touched, smelled or tasted. And our senses are not infallible. If anything extraordinary seems to have happened, we can always say that we have been the victims of an illusion. If we hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural, this is what we always shall say. What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience. It is therefore useless to appeal to experience before we have settled, as well as we can, the philosophical question.

C.S. Lewis

A prayer couched in the words of the soul, is far more powerful than any ritual.

Paulo Coelho

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two C

I used to be a real prince charming if I went on a date with a girl. But then I'd get to where I was likely to have a stroke from the stress of keeping up my act. I've since learned the key to a good date is to pay attention on her.

Matthew Perry

Civilization today reminds me of an ape with a blowtorch playing in a room full of dynamite. It looks like the monkeys are about to operate the zoo, and the inmates are taking over the asylum.

Vance Havner

Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.

Luciano Pavarotti

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

Ralph Waldo Emerson