Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.

An honorable Peace is and always was my first wish! I can take no delight in the effusion of human Blood but, if this War should continue, I wish to have the most active part in it.

John Paul Jones

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

Rudyard Kipling

There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.

Louis XIV

To regard the imagination as metaphysics is to think of it as part of life, and to think of it as part of life is to realize the extent of artifice. We live in the mind.

Wallace Stevens

Roosevelt's humor was broad, his manner friendly. Of wit there was little of philosophy, none. What did he possess? Intuition, inspiration, love of adventure.

Emanuel Celler

Anarchy is the ultimate destination of any positively evolving society.

Eric Parslow

Your death and my death are mainly of importance to ourselves. The black plumes will be stripped off our hearses within the hour; tears will dry, hurt hearts close again, our graves grow level with the church-yard, and although we are away, the world wags on. It does not miss us; and those who are near us, when the first strangeness of vacancy wears off, will not miss us much either.

Alexander Smith

Observe your enemies, for they first find out your faults.

Antisthenes

Whenever I hear people talking about liberal ideas, I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.

Johann von Goethe

All of the legal defense funds out there, they're looking for people out there with court of appeals experience, because court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know, I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don't make law, I know. I know.

Sonia Sotomayor

There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.

Bill Watterson

A cheerful life is what the Muses love, A soaring spirit is their prime delight.

William Wordsworth