One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.

In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word.

Michel de Montaigne

Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt, use it-don't cheat with it.

Ernest Hemingway

It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. The funds that a government spends for whatever purposes are levied by taxation. And taxes are paid because the taxpayers are afraid of offering resistance to the tax gatherers. They know that any disobedience or resistance is hopeless. As long as this is the state of affairs, the government is able to collect the money that it wants to spend. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Ludwig von Mises

Earmarks have become a symbol of a Congress that has broken faith with the people. This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington.

John Boehner

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me.

Steve Jobs

History as well as life itself is complicated -- neither life nor history is an enterprise for those who seek simplicity and consistency.

Jared Diamond

I have maintained a passionate interest in education, which leads me occasionally to make foolish and ill-considered remarks alleging that not everything is well in our schools.

Philip Pullman

Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it's very hard to teach racism to a teenager who's listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It's hard to say, 'That guy is less than you.' The kid is like, 'I like that guy, he's cool. How is he less than me?

Jay-Z

The best book on programming for the layman is Alice in Wonderland; but that's because it's the best book on anything for layman.

Anon.

Me propongo a describir, con precisión, hechos que finalmente han provocado mi forzosa estadía en este manicomio con el insólito consentimiento de mi amadísima familia, alumnos, colegas y amistades, habiendo sido recluido específicamente en el pabellón de los personajes famosos, dignidad esta que rechazo de plano.

Eduardo Liendo

I don't think that you can possibly embrace the kind of joy which one who has worked with plants and plant structures such as I have over a period of nearly 40 years, how wonderful the plant laboratory seems.

Percy Julian

The danger from computers is not that they will eventually get as smart as men, but we will meanwhile agree to meet them halfway.

Bernard Avishai