The People's Republic of China has not yet reached the military might of the Soviet Empire. It requires a little more time and a little more infusion of Western aid, loans, technology and the hard currency of our tourists.

In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

Alexis de Tocqueville

You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination. Hold the philosophy, hold the adjectives, just give us a plain subject and verb and perhaps a wholesome, nonfattening adverb or two.

Larry McMurtry

I was flipping channels, watching this cheerleading program on MTV. They took a field hockey girl and transformed her into a cheerleader by the end of the show. I was just wondering: what if she liked field hockey better?

Jess C. Scott

It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A thousand laughing suns are in your eyes. A thousand crying stars in mine.

Ahmad Shamlou

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

Mark Twain

War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Look, people have an image of Italians. When I go somewhere in the world, I don't care where it is, when they look at me it's not about my intelligence. It's who can I beat up.

Danny Aiello

Scratch a lover, and find a foe.

Dorothy Parker

The only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping and showing off his shortcomings.

David Niven

From lies to forgeries the step is not so long, and I have written technical essays on the logic of forgeries and on the influence of forgeries on history.

Umberto Eco

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

William Shakespeare