Renouncement: the heroism of mediocrity.

Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry, to discriminate between what is more and what is less excellent in them, or to use words like beauty, excellence, art, poetry, with a more precise meaning than they would otherwise have.

Walter Pater

I can't remember a major league game where I could make eye contact with my dad. I kept wondering if he was going to yell at me for hanging a pitch or something.

David Cone

Ponder deep wisdom, dark or clear,Each secret fishy hope or fear.Fish say, they have their Stream and Pond;But is there anything Beyond?This life cannot be All, they swear,For how unpleasant, if it were!One may not doubt that, somehow, GoodShall come of Water and of Mud;And, sure, the reverent eye must seeA Purpose in Liquidity.

Rupert Brooke, Heaven South Seas

We use the word 'hope' perhaps more often than any other word in the vocabulary: 'I hope it's a nice day.' 'Hopefully, you're doing well.' 'So how are things going along? Pretty good. Going to be good tomorrow? Hope so.'

Studs Terkel

God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.

Jean Paul

It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust nobody.

English Proverb

Love consists of a commitment which limits one's freedom - it is a giving of the self, and to give oneself means just that: to limit one's freedom on behalf of another.

Pope John Paul II

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

Mark Twain

Don't count your owls before they are delivered.

J.K. Rowling

Political folk talk a lot these days about 'messaging' - a neologism designed to describe the way in which parties and politicians consciously characterize their efforts. It is only intended to be positive - i.e., 'Our messaging is designed to show we care.'

John Podhoretz

The true art of memory, is the art of attention

Samuel Johnson

Our love had begun in folly, and ended in madness!

Charles Dickens