Someday I'd love to do Shakespeare.

The effectiveness of work increases according to geometric progression if there are no interruptions.

Andre Maurois

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.

Elbert Hubbard

For the first time in his life, Mont Blanc for a moment looked to him what it was - a chaos of anarchic and purposeless forces - and he needed days of repose to see it clothe itself again with the illusions of his senses, the white purity of its snows, the splendor of its light, and the infinity of its heavenly peace. Nature was kind; Lake Geneva was beautiful beyond itself, and the Alps put on charms real as terrors.

Henry Adams

Pessimist: The optimist who didn't arrive

Mark Twain

This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world.

Ai Weiwei

A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours.

Milton Berle

I have just returned from Boston. It is the only thing to do if you find yourself up there.

Fred Allen

Of all the sexual aberrations, perhaps the most peculiar is chastity.

Remy de Gourmont

There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire; it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.

George Eliot

Harry was left to ponder in silence the depths to which girls would sink to get revenge.

J.K. Rowling

True beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys.

Yukio Mishima

Pick up any newspaper or magazine, open the TV, and you'll be bombarded with suggestions of how to have a successful life. Some of these suggestions are deeply unhelpful to our own projects and priorities - and we should take care.

Alain de Botton