There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.

Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

William Shakespeare

Thou art all ice. Thy kindness freezes.

William Shakespeare

Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it.

Ernest Hemingway

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.

Henry Ford

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

Epictetus

You don't know me. You know one me, just like I know one you. And you can't know every me, and I can't know every you.

David Levithan

The world, in truth, is a wedding.

Erving Goffman

'Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age' was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant's thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed out of the Stone Age.

Christopher Hitchens

People who read poetry, for example, like the feel, the heft and the smell of a book.

Simon Armitage

Cannibals prefer those who have no spines.

Stanislaw Lem

Which one of the three candidates would you want your daughter to marry?

H. Ross Perot

But the first the general public learned about the discovery was the news of the destruction of Hiroshima by the atom bomb. A splendid achievement of science and technology had turned malign. Science became identified with death and destruction.

Joseph Rotblat