I am not interested in the past, except as the road to the future.

Polite and velvety leaders, who take care to avoid bruising others, are generally not as effective at forcing change.

Walter Isaacson

The only power deserving the name is that of masses, and of governments while they make themselves the organ of the tendencies and instincts of masses.

John Stuart Mill

It isn't the oceans which cut us off from the world -- it's the American way of looking at things.

Henry Miller

Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart's desire; the other is to get it.

Socrates

Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.

Indra Nooyi

I could not accept the academic idea that the purpose of music was communication, because I noticed that when I conscientiously wrote something sad, people and critics were often apt to laugh. I determined to give up composition unless I could find a better reason for doing it than communication. I found this answer from Gira Sarabhai, an Indian singer and tabla player: The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences. I also found in the writings of Ananda K. Coomaraswammy that the responsibility of the artist is to imitate nature in her manner of operation. I became less disturbed and went back to work.http://www.newalbion.com/artists/cagej/autobiog.html

John Milton Cage, An Autobiograp

In God's eyes, walking on water is no more miraculous than the ability of hemoglobin to bond with oxygen inside a red blood corpuscle.

Deepak Chopra

Integrity is a bugger, it really is. Lying can get you into difficulties, but to really wind up in the crappers try telling nothing but the truth.

David Mitchell

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.

James Thurber

Shall we then judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely. 'Tis pedantry to estimate nations by the census, or by square miles of land, or other than by their importance to the mind of the time.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We women are constantly at war with our bodies, it is hard to find amnesty for ourselves.

Margaret Cho

You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break.

Harry S. Truman