We may differ on many things, but what we respect is freeinquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.We do not hold our convictions dogmatically: the disagreement betweenProfessor Stephen Jay Gould and Professor Richard Dawkins,concerning punctuated evolution and the unfilled gaps in post-Darwinian theory, is quite wide as well as quite deep, but we shallresolve it by evidence and reasoning and not by mutual excommunication.

We're taught to be ashamed of confusion, anger, fear and sadness, and to me they're of equal value to happiness, excitement and inspiration.

Alanis Morissette

Would you live with ease, do what you ought, and not what you please.

Benjamin Franklin

...the story of a man who saw three fellows laying bricks at a new building:He approached the first and asked, What are you doing?Clearly irritated, the first man responded, What the heck do you think I'm doing? I'm laying these darn bricks!He then walked over to the second bricklayer and asked the same question.The second fellow responded, Oh, I'm making a living.He approached the third bricklayer with the same question, What are you doing?The third looked up, smiled and said, I'm building a cathedral.At the end of the day, who feels better about how he's spent his last eight hours?

Joan Borysenko

A lot of people feel very good about Mitt Romney and I think he's going to do a great job.

Donald Trump

The overall strength of Chinese culture and its international influence is not commensurate with China's international status. The international culture of the West is strong while we are weak.

Hu Jintao

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

Joseph Joubert

Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.

Confucius

The sciences were financially supported, honoured everywhere, universally pursued; they were like tall edifices supported by strong foundations. Then the Christian religion appeared in Byzantium and the centres of learning were eliminated, their vestiges effaced and the edifice of Greek learning was obliterated. Everything the ancient Greeks had brought to light vanished, and the discoveries of the ancients were altered out of recognition.

Mas'udi

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

The things you learn in maturity aren’t simple things such as acquiring information and skills. You learn not to engage in self-destructive behavior. You learn not to burn up energy in anxiety. You discover how to manage your tensions. You learn that self-pity and resentment are among the most toxic of drugs. You find that the world loves talent but pays off on character.

John Gardner

There is no racial or ethnic involvement in Thanksgiving, and people who may be very distant from the Christian system can see the beauty and the positive spirit that comes from the holiday.

John Clayton

I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.

Steve Jobs