I made a supreme effort not to do that thing that parents do, which is to bore people without children to death by going on and on about how funny their children are, so there's none of that hopefully.

If we know that our own men are in a condition to attack, but are unaware that the enemy is not open to attack, we have gone only halfway towards victory.

Sun Tzu

The idea of thanking staff should mean giving them something that they would never buy for themselves.

Jayne Crook

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.

Johann von Goethe

Since open-mindedness and experimentation are supposed to be the indispensable attributes of our 'scientific' civilization, it seems strange that so many scientists are reluctant to try out personally the hypothesis that God came first and man afterward. They prefer to believe that man is the chance product of evolution; that God, the Creator, does not exist. I can only report that I have experimented with both concepts and that, in my case, the God concept has proved to be a better basis for living than the man-centered one. Nevertheless, I would be the first to defend your right to think as you will. I simply ask this question: in your own life, have you ever really tried to think and act as though there might be a God? Have you experimented?

Bill Wilson, Letter, 1950

I think government has a major role to play in helping us with the pursuit of happiness.

William Weld

America must be the teacher of democracy, not the advertiser of the consumer society. It is unrealistic for the rest of the world to reach the American living standard.

Mikhail Gorbachev

I found that I had become so spinsterish that I was made neurotic not only by my life of domesticity but by the slightest derangement of my room. I would burst into a fit of weeping if the kettle was not facing due east.

Quentin Crisp

And what does she mean by love, anyway? People use that word and mean all sorts of things by it.

Jude Morgan

To this day, I am the least materialistic person I know, because my father didn't raise me to just go out and buy this or that car. The only reason I wanted to make money as an actor was because I'm passionate about food!

Hugh Jackman

The people I'm furious with are the Women's Liberationists. They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming women are brighter than men. That's true, but it should be kept quiet or it ruins the whole racket.

Anita Loos

when you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. your tastes only narrow

Why The Lucky Stiff

The one great principle of English law is to make business for itself.

Charles Dickens