Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star'd at the Pacific--and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise-- Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

You shall have joy, or you shall have power, said God; you shall not have both

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You told me the truth when you said to me once, There's a sort of wrong that can never be made up for.

George Eliot

It is terrible to destroy a person's picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction.

Doris Lessing

With rivers as with good friends, you always feel better for a few hours in their presence; you always want to review your dialogue, years later, with a particular pool or riffle or bend, and to live back through the layers of experience. We have been to this river before and together. We have much to relive.

Nick Lyons, from Bright Rivers

Tutti gli animali sono uguali, ma alcuni sono più uguali degli altri

George Orwell

The human condition today is better than it's ever been, and technology is one of the reasons for that.

Tom Clancy

Before the beginning of yearsThere came to the making of manTime, with a gift of tears; Grief, with a glass that ran; Pleasure, with pain for leaven; Summer, with flowers that fell; Remembrance, fallen from heaven, And madness risen from hell; Strength without hands to smite; Love that endures for a breath; Night, the shadow of light, And Life, the shadow of death.

Algernon Charles Swinburne, Atal

It's like a play we're watching

James Dye

O my brethren, my heart is enlarge towards you. I trust I feel something of that hidden, but powerful presence of Christ, whilst I am preaching to you.

George Whitefield

The more science discovers and the more comprehension it gives us of the mechanisms of existence, the more clearly does the mystery of existence itself stand out.

Aldous Huxley

When a person is in fashion, all they do is right.

Lord Chesterfield

That's a central part of philosophy, of ethics. What do I owe to strangers? What do I owe to my family? What is it to live a good life? Those are questions which we face as individuals.

Peter Singer