Whenever I refused to follow my fate, something very hard to bear would happen in my life.

My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear.

Anne Lamott

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.

Bertrand Russell

The current flows fast and furious. It issues in a spate of words from the loudspeakers and the politicians. Every day they tell us that we are a free people fighting to defend freedom. That is the current that has whirled the young airman up into the sky and keeps him circulating there among the clouds. Down here, with a roof to cover us and a gasmask handy, it is our business to puncture gasbags and discover the seeds of truth.

Virginia Woolf, "New Republic",

You need a high degree of corruption or a very big heart to love absolutely everything

Gustave Flaubert

I wish... I wish he wasn't quite so ashamed of me. And if he could stop feeling so ashamed of himself, then maybe we might stand a chance.

Malorie Blackman

My goal in sailing isn't to be brilliant or flashy in individual races, just to be consistent over the long run.

Dennis Conner

If we have an honest discussion on whether the war on poverty should be fought with welfare or with economic growth in the private sector, Democrats will lose black votes.

Alveda King

I really believe you can predict when someone has a great attitude, a real well of talent.

Taylor Hackford

Marriage may often be a stormy lake, but celibacy is almost always a muddy horse pond.

Thomas Love Peacock

Again, the truth of the matter is we haven't paid that much attention to high school accountability.

Margaret Spellings

Double, double, toil and trouble;Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!

William Shakespeare

I met Gemma, my wife, when she was 12. She had a schoolgirl crush on me and her dad had arranged for her to meet me. Later, she started coming to my concerts, but I only got to know her well after her mother died. I rang to see how she was, and that's how it started.

Gary Numan