Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion. Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave and eats a bread it does not harvest. Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful. Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening. Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block. Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, and farewells him with hooting, only to welcome another with trumpeting again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strongmen are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.

Strong delusions travel like cold germs on a sneeze.

Stephen King

I love working.

Gloria Stuart

He loved the feel and smell of her palm and because he was one of those men who was always ultimately looking to dissolve himself into a woman.

Glen Duncan

Power means happiness; power means hard work and sacrifice.

Beyonce Knowles

We are closer to the ants than to the butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure.

Gerald Brenan

Doon was touched. Kenny looked like a tiny little wisp, but there was something strong inside him. --People of Sparks--

Jeanne DuPrau

I'm always rather nervous about how you talk about women who are active in politics, whether they want to be talked about as women or as politicians.

John F. Kennedy

If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.

Leo Tolstoy

Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.

Charles Caleb Colton

Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I'm talking to people. It doesn't always work, and one shouldn't always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation.

Christopher Hitchens

Again, in Wag the Dog, war has to be declared by an act of congress. But if you go to war, you don't have to declare war. You're just at war and we did that, which is not legal.

Val Kilmer

Poor shepherdless sheep! it was His delight, as the Good Shepherd, to lead them to rich pastures; and as they sat and stood around Him, they forgot their bodily wants in the beauty and power of His words.

John Cunningham Geikie