We women are always in danger of living too exclusively in the affections; and though our affections are perhaps the best gifts we have, we ought also to have our share of the more independent life -- some joy in things for their own sake. It is piteous to see the helplessness of some sweet women when their affections are disappointed -- because all their teaching has been, that they can only delight in study of any kind for the sake of a personal love. They have never contemplated an independent delight in ideas as an experience which they could confess without being laughed at. Yet surely women need this defense against passionate affliction even more than men.

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.

Ernest Hemingway

Marvelous is the power which can be exercised, almost unconsciously, over a company, or an individual, or even upon a crowd by one person gifted with good temper, good digestion, good intellects, and good looks.

Anthony Trollope

If you can't be bothered to work on Saturday, don't bother to come in on Sunday.

Jay Chiat, Unofficial work code

The puritan through life's sweet garden goes to pluck the thorn and cast away the rose.

Kenneth Hare

Matilda told such dreadful lies,It made one gasp and stretch one's eyes;Her aunt, who from her earliest youth,Had kept a strict regard for truth,Attempted to believe Matilda:The effort very nearly killed her.

Hilaire Belloc, Cautionary Tales

I love going to Africa and stuff. I love going anywhere, really, but I've been to Africa a bunch of times and it's just a beautiful place that needs help, obviously, but helping people that are really thankful is really easy to do. And the people out there always seem so thankful.

Kris Allen

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.

Orson Welles

Children should have enough freedom to be themselves - once they've learned the rules.

Anna Quindlen

In the schoolroom her quick mind had taken readily that strong starch of unexplained rules and disconnected facts which saves ignorance from any painful sense of limpness.

George Eliot

I was taught to confront things you can't avoid. Death is one of those things. To live in a society where you're trying not to look at it is stupid because looking at death throws us back into life with more vigour and energy. The fact that flowers don't last for ever makes them beautiful.

Damien Hirst

When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?'

Don Marquis

I was doing stand-up at a restaurant and there was a chalkboard on the street out front. It said, Soup of the Day: Cream of Asparagus. Ellen DeGeneres.

Ellen DeGeneres