This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.

No matter how close to personal experience a story might be, inevitably you are going to get to a part that isn't yours and, actually, whether it happened or not becomes irrelevant. It is all about choosing the right words.

Roddy Doyle

The principle of self defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

You know a dream is like a river, ever changing as it flows.And a dreamer's just a vessel that must follow where it goes.Trying to learn from what's behind you and never knowing what's in storemakes each day a constant battle just to stay between the shores.And I will sail my vessel 'til the river runs dry.Like a bird upon the wind, these waters are my sky.I'll never reach my destination if I never try,So I will sail my vessel 'til the river runs dry.Too many times we stand aside and let the water slip away.To what we put off 'til tomorrow has now become today.So don't you sit upon the shore and say you're satisfied.Choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tides.

Garth Brooks, song The River cow

Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields, or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and you will succeed.

William Makepeace Thackeray

Life isn't all beer and skittles, but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman's education.

Thomas Hughes

One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to come up to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider.

Damon Runyon

It is my right to be uncommon. For I do not choose to be a common man, If I can, I seek opportunity. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the government look after me. I choose to take the calculated risk, to dream, to build, to fail or succeed. I choose not to barter incentive for a dole, I prefer the challenges of life to a guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the state calm of Utopia. I will not trade my freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout.

Source Unknown

If you've got the truth you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn't prove it.

Robert A. Heinlein

I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.

Paulo Coelho

She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.

Dorothy Parker

If we wish to make a new world we have the material ready. The first one, too, was made out of chaos.

Robert Quillen

America's downgrade may serve as a wakeup call for its policymakers. It is an unambiguous and loud signal of the country's eroding economic strength and global standing. It renders urgent the need to regain the initiative through better economic policymaking and more coherent governance.

Mohamed El-Erian