Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

Speech is civilization itself. The word... preserves contact -- it is silence which isolates.

Thomas Mann

Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage.

Hosea Ballou

Others think it the responsibility of scientists to coerce the rest of society, because they have the power that derives from special knowledge.

John Charles Polanyi

When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

One of the good things about the way the Gulf War ended in 1991 is, you'd see the Vietnam veterans marching with the Gulf War veterans.

George H. W. Bush

I find that when you see somebody in the tabloids all the time, you have no desire to see them in movies.

Seann William Scott

At the start of his second term, one wonders less about Obama's fitness than his willingness: Why doesn't he do more to build and maintain the relationships required to govern in era of polarization?

Ron Fournier

Parents should conduct their arguments in quiet, respectful tones, but in a foreign language. You'd be surprised what an inducement that is to the education of children.

Judith Martin

When adults say, 'Teenagers think they are invincible' with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.

John Green

National isolation breeds national neurosis.

Hubert Humphrey

The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.

Eric Hoffer, The Passionate Stat

Let me arrest thy thoughts; wonder with me, why plowing, building, ruling and the rest, or most of those arts, whence our lives are blest, by cursed Cain's race invented be, and blest Seth vexed us with Astronomy.

John Donne