In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.

I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive.

Man Ray

It is impossible to think of a man of any actual force and originality, universally recognized as having those qualities, who spent his whole life appraising and describing the work of other men.

H. L. Mencken

Philosophy is perfectly right in saying that life must be understood backward. But then one forgets the other clause - that it must be lived forward. The more one thinks through this clause, the more one concludes that life in temporality never becomes properly understandable, simply because never at any time does one get perfect repose to take the stance - backward.

Soren Kierkegaard, Journals and

Mercy is stronger than your sword.

P.C. Cast

Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.

Benjamin Franklin

The man who has the will to undergo all labor may win to any good.

Martin Luther

Show him who I am, so he will pity me instead of fearing me. And then we can turn pity into compassion, and compassion into understanding, and understanding into affection, and affection into love, and love into life, the life of our children, the life of the new self we will become together.

Orson Scott Card

A neighborhood is a residential area that is changing for the worse.

John Ciardi

I spent a lot of years on the road, and what happens is you find out who your real friends are and you find out where your strengths and weaknesses lie in communication. I've had the same friends for 20 years now and I can count them on one hand.

Sarah McLachlan

I've already told you: the only way to a woman's heart is along the path of torment. I know none other as sure.

Marquis de Sade

I don't listen to what art critics say. I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.

Jerzy Gregorek