When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

Thanks to capitalism, the importance placed on beauty has never been so manipulated. We are the guinea pigs force-fed ads that tell us how pathetic we are: that we will never be loved, happy or valuable unless we have the body, the face, the hair, even the personality that will apparently be ours, if only we buy their products.

Beth Ditto

Of course great hotels have always been social ideas, flawless mirrors to the particular societies they service.

Joan Didion

It sort of floated toward me, said Ron, illustrating the movement with his free index finger, right to my chest, and then it just went straight through. It was here, he touched a point close to his heart, I could feel it, it was hot. And once it was inside me I knew what I was supposed to do, I knew it would take me where I needed to go. So I Disapparated and came out on the side of a hill. There was snow everywhere. . . .

J.K. Rowling

Veiling truth in mystery.

Virgil

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.

William Makepeace Thackeray

A sin confessed is half forgiven.

Proverb

It is pleasing to God whenever thou rejoices or laughest from the bottom of thy heart

Martin Luther King Jr.

A negative judgment gives you more satisfaction than praise, provided it smacks of jealousy.

Jean Baudrillard

Listen, in England people are already writing their memoirs at the age of 23.

Rupert Everett

The worth of men consists in their liability to persuasion. . . . Civilisation is the maintenance of social order, by its own inherent persuasiveness as embodying the nobler alternative. The recourse to force, however unavoidable, is a disclosure of the failure of civilisation, either in the general society or in a remnant of individuals. Thus in a live civilisation there is always an element of unrest. For sensitiveness to ideas means curiosity, adventure, change. Civilised order survives on its merits, and is transformed by its power of Recognizing its imperfections.

Alfred North Whitehead, Adventur

Sure the people are stupid: the human race is stupid. Sure Congress is an inefficient instrument of government. But the people are not stupid enough to abandon representative government for any other kind, including government by the guy who knows.

Bernard Devoto

God doesn't foresee the humans making their free contributions in a future, but sees them doing so in His unbounded now. And obviously to watch a man doing something is not to make him do it.

C.S. Lewis