He that travels in theory has no inconveniences; he has shade and sunshine at his disposal, and wherever he alights finds tables of plenty and looks of gaiety. These ideas are indulged till the day of departure arrives, the chaise is called, and the progress of happiness begins. A few miles teach him the fallacies of imagination. The road is dusty, the air is sultry, the horses are sluggish. He longs for the time of dinner that he may eat and rest. The inn is crowded, his orders are neglected, and nothing remains but that he devour in haste what the cook has spoiled, and drive on in quest of better entertainment. He finds at night a more commodious house, but the best is always worse than he expected.

Let some holy ambition invade our souls, so that, dissatisfied with mediocrity, we shall eagerly desire the highest things and shall toil with all our strength to obtain them, since we may if we wish.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age.

Victor Hugo

You can be in Tokyo or Alberta at four in the morning in your hotel and you can still practice if you feel like it. A trombone cannot do that at four in the morning.

Toots Thielemans

We all of us waited for him to die. The family sent him a check every month, and hoped he'd get on with it quietly, without too much vulgar fuss.

John Osborne

The intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes.

Galileo Galilei

Three things have been difficult to tame: the oceans, fools and women. We may soon be able to tame the oceans; fools and women will take a little longer.

Spiro T. Agnew

The face of nature and civilization in this our country is to a certain point a very sufficient literary field. But it will yield its secrets only to a really grasping imagination. To write well and worthily of American things one need even more than elsewhere to be a master.

Henry James

Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by hitting back.

Piet Hein

Tim and Fritz Lang I loved working with. Not Hitchcock so much. There was no communication.

Sylvia Sidney

It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity.

Seneca (Seneca the Elder)

Computers, like automobiles and airplanes, do only what people tell them to do.

Bill James

I used to listen to my dad a lot as a way of trying to be close to him, as well, because my parents were divorced and I didn't spend that much time with him. And I used to put headphones on and listen to my dad talk and sing and I found that quite... bonding with him, in a weird way.

Teddy Thompson