When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare.

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains.

Walt Whitman

It is a curious phenomena that God has made the hearts of the poor, rich and those of the rich, poor.

Vinoba Bhave

Whatever else an American believes or disbelieves about himself, he is absolutely sure he has a sense of humor.

E. B. White

A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it slips away, like a lizard, smooth, slippery, faithless, a pixy wife. Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

Thomas Mann, The Beloved Returns

One morning I woke up and was plunged into psychological shock. I had forgotten I was free.

Jack Henry Abbott

For example, I was a White House intern the summer before I dropped out of law school. Everybody knew about it. I'd come home and go to church and everybody would say, 'Oh, my God. Demetri, you're working at the White House.'

Demetri Martin

I was always such a people-watcher. I would sit on street corners alone and watch people and make up stories about them in my head. Then, all of a sudden, I was the one being watched.

Alanis Morissette

You can work really hard, but if you're not training in the right way you're not going to improve and get to the level that you want to.

Michael Chang

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

Benjamin Disraeli

This is a very important relationship we have with Russia, the relationship over the nuclear arsenal that they have obviously is important. They're a very powerful country.

Warren Christopher

Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience.

A. R. Ammons