My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.

The American flag is an enduring symbol of liberty, democracy, and justice. It is fitting that the House act to protect it as we approach our nation's birthday, and as our men and women in uniform rally behind it in Iraq's battlefields.

Joe Barton

When a man is just and firm in his purpose,The citizens burning to approve a wrongOr the frowning looks of a tyrantDo not shake his fixed mind, nor the Southwind.Wild lord of the uneasy Adriatic,Nor the thunder in the mighty hand of Jove:Should the heavens crack and tumble down,As the ruins crushed him he would not fear.

Horace, Odes 3.3, translated by

Nothing can move faster than light.

Albert Einstein

Truth is neither alive nor dead; it just aggravates itself all the time.

Mark Twain

The devil tempts all men, but idle men tempt the devil.

Arabic Proverb

Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do -- to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.

Stephen King

The time I had waited probably made the difference between success and failure.

Anna Neagle

Fame is the thirst of youth.

Lord (George Gordon) Byron

I am your anointed Queen. I will never be by violence constrained to do anything. I thank God I am endued with such qualities that if I were turned out of the Realm in my petticoat I were able to live in any place in Christendom.

Elizabeth I

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

Friedrich Nietzsche

If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think its emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind. Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new.

George Eliot

Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled.

Samuel Johnson