In the school of political projectors, I was but ill entertained, the professors appearing, in my judgment, wholly out of their senses; which is a scene that never fails to make me melancholy. These unhappy people were proposing schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favorites upon the score of their wisdom, capacity, and virtue; of teaching ministers to consult the public good; of rewarding merit, great abilities, and eminent services, of instructing princes to know their true interest, by placing it on the same foundation with that of their people; of choosing for employment persons qualified to exercise them; with many other wild impossible chimeras, that never entered before into the heart of man to conceive; and confirmed in me the old observation, that there is nothing so extravagant and irrational which some philosophers have not maintained for truth.

Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidarity to pure wind.

George Orwell, as quoted in Soni

I was homeless for a little bit. I was on people's couches, but it was an amazing journey. I got to make people laugh all the way.

Sherri Shepherd

Age, with his eyes in the back of his head, thinks it wisdom to see the bogs through which he has floundered.

Ambrose Bierce

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake . . . by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, fro

Children love their parents. Eventually they come to judge them. Rarely do they forgive them.

Oscar Wilde

When I look back on all the worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.

Sir Winston Churchill

The smile of God is victory.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Because you are beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence

John Green

The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.

Plato

Maturity is the capacity to endure uncertainty.

John Huston Finley

The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.

Carl Sagan

One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears - by listening to them.

Dean Rusk