Oh! it is absurd to have a hard-and-fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.

As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?

Alexis de Tocqueville

Who so desireth to know what will be hereafter, let him think of what is past, for the world hath ever been in a circular revolution; whatsoever is now, was heretofore; and things past or present, are no other than such as shall be again: Redit orbis in orbem.

Sir Walter Raleigh

There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge and wisdom. Shall we instead choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? I appeal as a human being to human beings; remember your humanity, and forget the rest.

Bertrand Russell

If you are the master be sometimes blind, if you are the servant be sometimes deaf.

Richard Buckminster Fuller

A nickel isn't worth a dime today.

Yogi Berra

It's easier to revise lousy writing than to revise a blank sheet of paper.

S. A. Bodeen

In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.

Mark Twain

There is no stimulus like that which comes from the consciousness of knowing that others believe in us.

Orison Swett Marden

Each generation produces its squad of moderns with peashooters to attack Gibraltar.

Channing Pollock

A dream without ambition is like a car without gas... you're not going anywhere.

Sean Hampton

Music is the greatest communication in the world. Even if people don't understand the language that you're singing in, they still know good music when they hear it.

Lou Rawls

How often had she wondered what would have happened if she'd remained with Jonathan? Not often, but regularly over the years. It was impossible not to have imagined that rejected future, a life of many countries, of vast and enduring adventure, of tiny rooms and rental houses. It was the sense of missed opportunity that returned to her, frightening but real, overwhelmingly real.

Michael Stein