What I must do is all that concerns me. This rule, equally arduous in actual and intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.

Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations reality is therefore abandoned.

Emile Durkheim

I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new-one which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use. That new language is the language of atomic warfare.

Dwight D Eisenhower

Most women's pictures are as boring and as formulaic as men's pictures. In place of a car chase or a battle scene, what you get is an extreme closeup of a woman breaking down.

Frances McDormand

I always thought that one of the reasons why a painter likes especially to have other painters look at his or her work is the shared experience of having pushed paint around.

Chuck Close

America has never seen itself as a national state like all others, but rather as an experiment in human freedom and democracy.

Brent Scowcroft

The qualities of a great man are vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character.

Dwight D Eisenhower

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Mother Teresa

America once had the clarity of the pioneer ax.

Robert Osborne

Peace is important for Israel.

Ehud Olmert

Flying is hours and hours of boredom sprinkled with a few seconds of sheer terror.

Gregory ''Pappy'' Boyington

To build a great company, which is a CEO's job, sometimes you have to stand up against conventional wisdom.

Carly Fiorina

Good people left me breathless and wondering. How had they got that way? How good were they, anyway? How would it feel to be good? Then I hit middle age and suddenly I wanted to be a better person and to know that I was living a good life.

Judith O'Reilly