Pray, v.: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.

Actually, my mother and Alfie came for three weeks' Christmas vacation and stayed for 21 years. I guess my mother never went back because she was lonely.

Frank McCourt

I spent millons of years in the worldof inorganic thingsas a star, as a rock...Then I died and became a plant--Forgetting my former existencebecause of its othernessThen I died and became an animal--Forgetting my life as a plantexcept for inclinations in the seasonof spring and sweet herbs--like the inclination of babestoward their mother's breastThen I died and became a humanMy intelligence ripened, awakeningfrom greed and self-seekingto become wise and knowingI behold a hundred thousandintelligences most marvelousand remember my former statesand inclinationsAnd when I die againI will soar past the angelsto places I cannot imagineNow, what have I ever lost by dying?

Rumi, What Have I Ever Lost By D

For everyone and everything, there is a time to die. Some do not know it, or would delay it, but its truth cannot be denied. Not when you look into the stars of the Ninth Gate.

Garth Nix

It is only to the happy that tears are a luxury.

Thomas Moore

These Names of Virtues with their Precepts were

Benjamin Franklin

But I dare not think too far into the future on the risk that I'll miss the present.

Colin Farrell

The terrorist uses surprise and stealth, and the only way to defeat that is by having accurate and timely intelligence.

Bill Nelson

?How does one become a butterfly? she asked pensively. You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.

Trina Paulus

Government and cooperation are in all things the laws of life. Anarchy and competition, the laws of death.

John Ruskin

Govern thyself then you will be able to govern the world.

Source Unknown

Happiness is the only sanction of life where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.

George Santayana

I have Graham Greene's telephone number, but I wouldn't dream of using it. I don't seek out writers because we all want to be alone.

Patricia Highsmith