Blot out from the page of history the names of all the great actors of his time in the drama of nations, and preserve the name of Washington, and the century would be renowned. ~Chauncey M. Depew
I don't believe a committee can write a book. It can, oh, govern a country, perhaps, but I don't believe it can write a book. ~Arnold Toynbee
Angels can fly because they carry no burdens. ~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994
It takes more strength of character to withstand good fortune than bad. ~La Rochefoucauld, Reflections, 1665
I usually lump organized religion, organized labor, and organized crime together. The Mafia gets points for having the best restaurants. ~Dave Beard
When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. ~Alexander Graham Bell
As to the Seven Deadly Sins, I deplore Pride, Wrath, Lust, Envy and Greed. Gluttony and Sloth I pretty much plan my day around. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
At the rate we're going, the Inaugural Ball is going to be a surprise party. ~Argus Hamilton
Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. ~Laura Ingalls Wilder
What we forgive too freely doesn't stay forgiven. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. ~Proverbs 22:6
The big difference between sex for money and sex for free is that sex for money usually costs a lot less. ~Brendan Behan
Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity. ~Joseph Addison
What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know. ~Saint Augustine
If I had time for only two exercises, I would choose yoga and skipping. ~Astrid Alauda
other animals? ~Attributed to George Bernard Shaw
Macho doesn't prove mucho. ~Zsa Zsa Gabor
You may delay, but time will not. ~Benjamin Franklin
I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things.... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind. I never water my garden without soaking myself. ~Leo F. Buscaglia, Bus 9 to Paradise
Why should I paint dead fish, onions and beer glasses? Girls are so much prettier. ~Marie Laurencin
Proverbs were bright shafts in the Greek and Latin quivers. ~Benjamin Disraeli
Being perfect artists and ingenuous poets, the Chinese have piously preserved the love and holy cult of flowers; one of the very rare and most ancient traditions which has survived their decadence. And since flowers had to be distinguished from each other, they have attributed graceful analogies to them, dreamy images, pure and passionate names which perpetuate and harmonize in our minds the sensations of gentle charm and violent intoxication with which they inspire us. So it is that certain peonies, their favorite flower, are saluted by the Chinese, according to their form or color, by these delicious names, each an entire poem and an entire novel: The Young Girl Who Offers Her Breasts, or: The Water That Sleeps Beneath the Moon, or: The Sunlight in the Forest, or: The First Desire of the Reclining Virgin, or: My Gown Is No Longer All White Because in Tearing It the Son of Heaven Left a Little Rosy Stain; or, even better, this one: I Possessed My Lover in the Garden. ~Octave Mirbeau, Torture Garden, "The Garden," Chapter 5
The poet doesn't invent. He listens. ~Jean Cocteau
I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. ~John Muir, 1913, in L.M. Wolfe, ed., John Muir, John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, 1938