No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.

This man, I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords!

Samuel Johnson

O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief... for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

Mark Twain

If you suffer misfortunes in your life, look for their cause, not in your actions, but in the thoughts which inspired them, and try to improve these thoughts.

Leo Tolstoy

'The Purpose-Driven Life' is not just a mega-bestselling work of Christian faith it is the thing that every voter, secular or not, yearns for.

Eric Liu

Caesar had perished from the world of men, had not his sword been rescued by his pen.

Henry Vaughan

Unsure how to answer, I took another grape. Time was no problem for me, but I wasn't eager to hear the long life story of a dwarf. And besides, this was a dream. It could evaporate any moment.

Haruki Murakami

To show a child what once delighted you, to find the child's delight added to your own - this is happiness.

J. B. Priestley

Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

People are generally amazed that I would take an interest in any form that would require me to stop talking for three hours.

Henry A. Kissinger

Your idol is shattered in the dust to prove that God's dust is greater than your idol.

Rabindranath Tagore

Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.

Wayne Dyer

I've heard the word 'fear'. I simply choose to believe it doesn't apply to me.

Cassandra Clare