Many people feel empty, a world that seemed so strong just collapsed. Forty years have been wasted on stupid strife for the sake of an unsuccessful experiment. The values gathered together have vanished, the strategies for survival have become ridiculous. And so forty years of our lives have become a story, a bad anecdote. But it may be possible to remember these adventures with a kind of irony.

Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

Francis Bacon, Essays, Of Studie

Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.

Agatha Christie

It is better to lose everything you have to keep the balance of justice level, than to live a life of petty privilege devoid of true freedom.

Bryant H. McGill

A poor man with nothing in his belly needs hope, illusion, more than bread.

Georges Bernanos

I love people who try to keep the world in control - because the world is inherently not in control.

Ana Gasteyer

It's the economy, stupid.

William Jefferson Clinton

Everyone has taste, yet it is more of a taboo subject than sex or money. The reason for this is simple: claims about your attitudes to or achievements in the carnal and financial arenas can be disputed only by your lover and your financial advisers, whereas by making statements about your taste you expose body and soul to terrible scrutiny. Taste is a merciless betrayer of social and cultural attitudes. Thus, while anybody will tell you as much (and perhaps more than) you want to know about their triumphs in bed and at the bank, it is taste that gets people's nerves tingling.

Stephen Bayley

Folks never understand the folks they hate.

James Russell Lowell

Good free verse is not at all easy to write, for there is no repetitive beat to lull the reader's critical faculty, much pattern and discipline is to be found in it, though the pattern of sounds and choice of exact words, gives it its beauty.

Marjorie Boulton

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor.

Paul Getty

To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Truth is not a matter of fact but a state of harmony with progress and hope. Enveloped only in its wings will we ever soar to the promise of our greater selves.

Bryant H. McGill