You're going to have things to repent, boy,' Mr. John had told Nick. 'That's one of the best things there is. You can always decide whether to repent them or not. But the thing is to have them.

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal, that I may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.

Calvin Coolidge

If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of reason our religion will be absurd and ridiculous . . . There are two equally dangerous extremes: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason.

Blaise Pascal

War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands.

H. L. Mencken

There are two ways of attaining an important end, force and perseverance; the silent power of the latter grows irresistible with time.

Madame Swetchine

One of my pet peeves is that sometimes the talents of my band get overlooked because, and it was the same problem that Frank Zappa had, with a lot of groups that use humor, people don't realize there's a lot of craft behind the comedy.

Al Yankovic

I do write a lot from personal experience, but I also embellish a bit.

Miranda Lambert

I feel that directors at times are like the janitors on the set. I am the secretary, I am the organizer, I am the maid, and I ask if they have eaten or rested. The best things are always out of your control. It's those moments that surpass the imagination that are thrilling.

Jane Campion

A novel should be an experience and convey an emotional truth rather than arguments.

Joyce Cary

Capital is money, capital is commodities. By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs.

Karl Marx

Never offer to teach a fish to swim.

Proverb

I met Elton John at an Interview dinner, and we just sort of became friends. He's got such a wicked sense of humor.

Moby