Politeness is the art of choosing among one's real thoughts.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Albert Einstein

Now heaven be thanked, I am out of love again! I have been long a slave, and now am free;

Jan Struther

I've often dreamed about going back to Nigeria, but that's a very romantic notion. It's a hideous country to go to in reality.

Hugo Weaving

Gray skies are just clouds passing over.

Duke Ellington

As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting -- the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.

Saul Bellow

Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, with takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.

Arnold J. Toynbee

Leibniz dedicated his life to efforts to educate people to understand that true happiness is found by locating their identity in benefitting mankind and their posterity.

Robert Trout

Enjoy the journey, enjoy ever moment, and quit worrying about winning and losing.

Matt Biondi

Lifting our cup means sharing our life so we can celebrate it. When we truly believe we are called to lay down our lives for our friends, we must dare to take the risk to let others know what we are living.

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Try, try, try, and keep on trying is the rule that must be followed to become an expert in anything.

W. Clement Stone

Heaven and Earth are meeting in a storm that, when it's over, will leave the air purer and the leaves fertile, but before that happens, houses will be destroyed, centuries- old trees will topple, paradises will be flooded.

Paulo Coelho

We talk of choosing our friends, but friends are self-elected

Ralph Waldo Emerson