The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings. If he loves, it is not to give himself, to blend in fecund union with another being, but to meditate on his love. His passions are mere appearances, being sterile. They are dissipated in futile imaginings, producing nothing external to themselves.

The older we get the more we must limit ourselves if we wish to be active.

Johann von Goethe

I never did quite fit the glamour mode. It is life with my husband and family that is my high now.

Patty Duke

Art is uncompromising and life is full of compromises.

Gunther Grass

The man who can but sketch his purpose beforehand in words is regarded as a wonder, and every artist and writer possesses that faculty. But gestation, fruition, the laborious rearing of the offspring, putting it to bed every night full fed with milk, embracing it anew every morning with the inexhaustible affection of a mother's heart, licking it clean, dressing it a hundred times in the richest garb only to be instantly destroyed; then never to be cast down at the convulsions of this headlong life till the living masterpiece is perfected which in sculpture speaks to every eye, in literature to every intellect, in painting to every memory, in music to every heart! --this is the task of execution. The hand must be ready at every moment to work in obedience to the mind.

Honore de Balzac, Cousin Bette

Like the Phoenix, we can observe in our own lives that disintegration brings with it transformation and rebirth.

Donna Labermeier

His shortcoming is his long staying.

Lewis L. Lewisohn

A woman can look both moral and exciting -- if she also looks as if it was quite a struggle.

Edna Ferber

We need to accept the seemingly obvious fact that a toxic environment can make people sick and that no amount of medical intervention can protect us. The health care community must become a powerful political lobby for environmental policy and legislation.

Andrew Weil

If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am.

Cyril Cusack

Usually I write about what I care about, which is a weakness but I think also a strength.

Mickey Kaus

You know, the period of World War I and the Roaring Twenties were really just about the same as today. You worked, and you made a living if you could, and you tired to make the best of things. For an actor or a dancer, it was no different then than today. It was a struggle.

James Cagney

The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven's lieutenants.

William Shakespeare