We are at war between consciousness and nature, between the desire for permanence and the fact of flux. It is ourself against ourselves.

There should be a statute of limitation on grief. A rulebook that says it is all right to wake up crying, but only for a month. That after 42 days you will no longer turn with your heart racing, certain you have heard her call out your name. That there will be no fine imposed if you feel the need to clean out her desk; take down her artwork from the refrigerator; turn over a school portrait as you pass - if only because it cuts you fresh again to see it. That it's okay to measure the time she has been gone, the way we once measured her birthdays.

Jodi Picoult

Every man needs two women, a quiet home-maker, and a thrilling nymph.

Iris Murdoch

Will speechless for once, a glass of water frozen halfway to his lips

Cassandra Clare

I hope the seeds I have sown will be taken up by those who will follow me because the journey I have begun cannot be undertaken in isolation.

Evelyn Glennie

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Henry David Thoreau

If there's an enduring theme in my work, it's probably the effects of class on American life.

Richard Russo

The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon.Our government's got a war on drugs....But get this: The two most widely abused and addictive and destructive of all substances are both perfectly legal.One, of course, is ethyl alcohol. And President George W. Bush, no less, and by his own admission, was smashed, or tiddley-poo, or four sheets to the wind a good deal of time from when he was sixteen until he was forty. When he was forty-one, he says, Jesus appeared to him and made him knock off the sauce, stop gargling nose paint.Other drunks have seen pink elephants.

Kurt Vonnegut

With honesty of purpose, balance, a respect for tradition, courage, and, above all, a philosophy of life, any young person who embraces the historical profession will find it rich in rewards and durable in satisfaction.

Samuel E. Morison

You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. there are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations of your own mind.

Darwin P. Kingsley

One is a child when one has a child. No one says, 'You will never be the same again.' Which is the truth! And we're all supposed to be happy all the time. What is that about?

Emma Thompson

It really is of importance, not only what men do, but also what manner of men they are that do it. Among the works of man, which human life is rightly employed in perfecting and beautifying, the first in importance surely is man himself.

John Stuart Mill

Americans should be free to recognize our religious heritage doing that is not the same as creating a government-sponsored religion.

Ernest Istook