The sobs and tears of joy he had not foreseen rose with such force within him that his whole body shook and for a long time prevented him from speaking. Falling on his knees by her bed. He held his wife's hand to his lips and kissed it, and her hand responded to his kisses with weak movement of finger. Meanwhile, at the foot of the bed, in the midwife's expert hands, like the flame of a lamp, flickered the life of a human being who had never existed before...

It is a tribute to the peculiar horror of contemporary life that it makes the worst features of earlier times -- the stupefaction of the masses, the obsessed and driven lives of the bourgeoisie -- seem attractive by comparison.

Christopher Lasch

In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions.

Catherine the Great

Always have your hook baited, in the pool you least think, there will be a fish.

Ovid

I've often dreamed about going back to Nigeria, but that's a very romantic notion. It's a hideous country to go to in reality.

Hugo Weaving

Men are often capable of greater things than they perform. They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.

Sir Hugh Walpole

Our most important task is to transform our consciousness so that violence is no longer an option for us in our personal lives, that understanding that a world of peace is possible only if we relate to each other as peaceful beings, one individual at a time.http://www.beliefnet.com/story/160/story_16071_1.html

Deepak Chopra, from an interview

Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced. . . . It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad. Sad hurts but it's a healthy feeling. It is a necessary thing to feel. Depression is very different.

J.K. Rowling

A lot of Thanksgiving days have been ruined by not carving the turkey in the kitchen.

Kin Hubbard

Most of my technical knowledge comes from having worked in the industrial video industry.

Richard King

Natural history is not about producing fables.

David Attenborough

the letters are mixed up. U and I should be together.

Jodi Picoult

I acquired an admiration for Japanese culture, art, and architecture, and learned of the existence of the game of GO, which I still play.

Philip Warren Anderson