My parents divorced when I was born, and my mother is a political science professor, like a feminist Mormon, which is sort of an oxymoron.

Every citizen of the republic ought to consider himself an unofficial policeman, and keep unsalaried watch and ward over the laws and their execution

Mark Twain

One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.

John W. Gardner

What sort of love is permeated by jealousy? You are jealous because you are unaware that everything you need is inside you.

Peter Deunov

Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's a valid part of any endeavour, not just writing.

Roddy Doyle

When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Let the ideas clash but not the hearts.

C. C. Mehta

Politics begin where the masses are, not where there are thousands, but where there are millions, that is where serious politics begin.

Vladimir Lenin

Perfect love casts out fear. Where there is love there are no demands, no expectations, no dependency. I do not demand that you make me happy; my happiness does not lie in you. If you were to leave me, I will not feel sorry for myself; I enjoy your company immensely, but I do not cling.

Anthony de Mello

I have never admitted that I am more than twenty-nine, or thirty at the most. Twenty-nine when there are pink shades, thirty when there are not.

Oscar Wilde, Lady Windemere's Fa

People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.

J. Michael Straczynski

It has always been the task of formal education to set up behavior which would prove useful or enjoyable later in a student's life.

B. F. Skinner

Is the chemical aftertaste the reason why people eat hot dogs, or is it some kind of bonus?

Neil Gaiman