Michelle Branch

"Everything comes and goes."

- Michelle Branch, 'Everything Comes And Goes'

Andre Gide

"There are admirable potentialities in every human being. Believe in your strength and your youth. Learn to repeat endlessly to yourself, 'It all depends on me.'"

- Andre Gide, author

Ellen DeGeneres

"Some of the most devastating things that happen to you will teach you the most."

- Ellen DeGeneres, comedian

Bill Vaughan

"An optimist stays up to see the New Year in. A pessimist waits to make sure the old one leaves."

- Bill Vaughan, columnist and author

Harry S. Truman

"If you can't convince them, confuse them."

- Harry S. Truman, former president of the USA

Alexander Pope

"A man should never be ashamed to own he has been wrong, which is but saying, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."

- Alexander Pope, poet

William Wordsworth

"That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."

- 'Tintern Abbey' by William Wordsworth

Gemma Hayes

"You carry all you'll ever need in your heart."

- Gemma Hayes, 'Two Step'

Thomas Jefferson

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson, former president of the USA

Eleanor Hamilton

"A compliment is a gift, not to be thrown away carelessly, unless you want to hurt the giver."

- Eleanor Hamilton

Cesare Pavese

"The only joy in the world is to begin."

- Cesare Pavese, author, poet, critic

William Hazlitt

"The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves."

- William Hazlitt, author, philosopher and critic

Brendan Gill

"Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious."

- Brendan Gill, journalist and author

Mark Twain

"To succeed in life you need two things: ignorance and confidence."

- Mark Twain, author

Wilco

"The first thing that you want will be the last thing that you need."

- Wilco, 'How To Fight Loneliness'

Edith Wharton

"There's no such thing as old age; there is only sorrow."

- Edith Wharton, author

George Carlin

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

- George Carlin, comedian, actor, author

J. K. Rowling

"Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it."

- J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

Charlie Chaplin

"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."

- Charlie Chaplin, actor, director, composer

Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, author, poet, physician

Noah and the Whale

"What you don't have now will come back again"

- Noah and the Whale, 'L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.'

Helen Keller

"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therin to be content."

- Helen Keller, author and activist

Henry David Thoreau

"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."

- Henry David Thoreau, author poet developmental critic

Lily Tomlin

"Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain."

- Lily Tomlin, comedian and actor

Martin Luther King Jr.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

- Martin Luther King Jr., social activist and reformer

Kurt Vonnegut

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."

- Kurt Vonnegut, author

William Allen White

“My advice to the women of America is to raise more hell and fewer dahlias”

- William Allen White, author and newspaper editor

The Beatles

"All you need is love."

- The Beatles, 'All You Need Is Love'

Patrick Kavanagh

"We must record love's mystery without claptrap,
Snatch out of time the passionate transitory"

- 'The Hospital' by Patrick Kavanagh

Ayn Rand

"I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction."

- "Anthem" by Ayn Rand 

Robert Frost

"A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom."

- Robert Frost, poet

Davy Barry

"You can only be young once. But you can always be immature."

- Dave Barry, author and columnist

Charles Dickens

"We need never be ashamed of our tears."

- "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

John F. Kennedy

"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."

- John F. Kennedy, former president of the USA

Michelle Branch

"There’ll be days when your heart will break and you swear that all your strength is gone, and then you’ll find a way to carry on"

- Michelle Branch, 'Crazy Ride'

Lao-Tzu

"To be worn out is to be renewed."

- Lao-tzu, philosopher

Maya Angelou

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as making a 'life.'"

- Maya Angelou, poet and author

Benjamin Disraeli

"The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end."

- Benjamin Disraeli, British politician

Will Rogers

"On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does."

- Will Rogers, comedian, actor, social commentator

Laurence J. Peter

"If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else."

- Laurence J. Peter, teacher and writer

Francis Bacon

"They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea."

- Francis Bacon, philosopher, statesman, scientist, author, lawyer

Ingrid Michaelson

"Everybody wants to love, everybody wants to be loved."

- Ingrid Michaelson, 'Everybody'

Winston Churchill

“It is my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you understand the most amusing”

- Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of Britan

Gloria Steinem

"The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn."

- Gloria Steinem, feminist activist and author

Dr. Seuss

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

- Dr. Seuss, author and cartoonist

The Simpsons

"Kids are the best, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the Internet and all"

 - Homer Simpson, 'The Simpsons,' created by Matt Groening

Steve Jobs

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

- Steve Jobs, inventor and entrepreneur (co-founder of Apple Inc.)

Bertrand Russell

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."

- Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, historian

Joni Mitchell

"Something's lost, and something's gained, in living every day."

- Joni Mitchell, 'Both Sides Now'

Albert Camus

"Always go too far, because that's where you'll find the truth."

- Albert Camus, author, philosopher, journalist

Benjamin Spock

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do."

- Benjamin Spock, doctor and author

Carl Jung

"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed."

- Carl Jung, psychiatrist and psychologist

Bob Hope

“I've always been in the right place and time. Of course, I steered myself there.”

- Bob Hope, comedian and actor

Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, author, poet, physician

Aristotle

"Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods."

- Aristotle, philosopher

Sarah McLachlan

"Don't let your life pass you by, weep not for the memories."

- Sarah McLachlan, 'I Will Remember You'

Euripides

"Oh, what an evil power love has in people's lives!"

- 'Medea' by Euripides

Albert Einstein

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."

- Albert Einstein, physicist

Jim Carrey

“I really want to love somebody. I do. I just don't know if it's possible forever and ever.”

- Jim Carrey, actor and comedian

Bahya Ibn Paquda

"If we could not forget, we would never be free from grief."

- Bahya Ibn Paquda, philosopher and rabbi

Publilius Syrus

"Tis foolish to fear what you cannot avoid."

- Publilius Syrus, ancient Roman writer

Arlo Guthrie

"You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in."

- Arlo Guthrie, musician

Wilco

"How to fight loneliness: smile all the time"

- Wilco, 'How To Fight Loneliness'

Confucius

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do."

- Confucius, philosopher and social activist

Bill Cosby

"A word to the wise ain't necessary, it's the stupid ones who need the advice."

- Bill Cosby, comedian, actor, author, musician

Lewis Carroll

"I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then."

- Lewis Carroll, author

Paracelsus

"Thoughts give birth to a creative force that is neither elemental nor sidereal. Thoughts create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy, from which new arts flow. When a man undertakes to create something, he establishes a new heaven, as it were and from it the work that he desires to create flows into him. For such is the immensity of man that he is greater than heaven and earth."

- Paracelsus, physician, botanist, alchemist, astronomer

George Bernard Shaw

"Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough."

- George Bernard Shaw, critic and playwright

Tom Krause

“If you only do what you know you can do, you'll never do very much.”

- Tom Krause, motivational speaker, teacher and coach.

Jem

"Who made up all the rules?
We follow them like fools,
Believe them to be true
Don't care to think them through."

- Jem, 'They'

Buddha

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

- Buddha

Voltaire

“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong”

- Voltaire, writer and philosopher

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer, philosopher and intellectual

Mahatma Gandhi

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

- Mahatma Gandhi, activist, political and spiritual leader

Sara Teasdale

“Beauty, more than bitterness, makes the heart break.”

- Sara Teasdale, poet

Amy Tan

"If you can't change your fate, change your attitude."

- Amy Tan, author

Patrick Park

"There's no telling where we'll be in a day or in a week,
And there's no promises of peace, or of happiness."

- Patrick Park, 'Life Is A Song'

James Thurber

"Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation."

- James Thurber, cartoonist, humourist, author

Henry David Thoreau

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."

- Henry David Thoreau, author, poet, developmental critic

Aaron Rose

"In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary."

- Aaron Rose, filmmaker

John Cleese

"I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me."

- John Cleese, actor, comedian, writer

René Descartes

"Cogito ergo sum"

i.e. "I think, therefore I am."

- René Descartes, philosopher, mathematician, writer

Descartes was a French philosopher who coined this well-known phrase. Descartes originally wrote it in French ("Je pense donc je suis") and it has since become a fundamental concept in philosophy. Simply put, Descartes reasoned that a person who wonders whether or not he exists must in fact exist by virtue of the fact that he wonders whether or not he exists.

Iris Murdoch

"Love is the difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real."

- Iris Murdoch, author and philosopher

Oscar Wilde

“True friends stab you in the front.”

 - Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Ingrid Michaelson

"Happy is the heart that still feels pain
Darkness drains and light will come in again
Swing open your chest and let it in."

- Ingrid Michaelson, 'Everybody'

Graham Greene

"I can believe only in love that strikes suddenly out of a clear sky:
I do not believe in the slow germination of friendship
Or one that asks 'why?'
Because our love came savagely, suddenly, like an actor of war,
I cannot conceive a love that rises gently and subsides without a scar."

- Graham Greene, author, playwright, literary critic

Charlotte Bronte

"If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends."

- Charlotte Bronte, "Jane Eyre"

Ambrose Bierce

"Painting: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic."

- "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

Mark Twain

“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.”

- Mark Twain, author

Bill Vaughan

"Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them."

- Bill Vaughan, columnist and author

William Allen White

“I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.”

- William Allen White, author and newspaper editor

South

"You've got a right to stand or die."

- South, 'Paint The Silence'

John Lennon

"Love means having to say you're sorry every fifteen minutes."

- John Lennon, musician and singer-songwriter

Anne Herbert

"Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty"

- Anne Herbert, writer and editor

Katherine Anne Porter

"The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one's own — even more, one's own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being."

- 'Ship of Fools' by Katherine Anne Porter

Wendell Berry

"The past is our definition. We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it."

- Wendell Berry, author, critic, academic

Bertrand Russell

"If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years."

- Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, historian

Harry S. Truman

"It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours."

- Harry S. Truman, former president of the USA

Havergal

"Believe in the art of just giving until you can't give."

- Havergal, 'New Innocent Tyro Allegory'

Albert Camus

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend."

- Albert Camus, author, philosopher, journalist

Arthur Rubinstein

"Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings."

- Arthur Rubinstein, composer and pianist

Thomas Jefferson

"Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."

- Thomas Jefferson, former president of the USA

Salman Rushdie

"A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep."

- Salman Rushdie, author

William Ernest Henley

"It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

- 'Invictus' by William Ernest Henley

Douglas Adams

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

- Douglas Adams, author and dramatist

The Postal Service

"Everything looks perfect from far away."

- The Postal Service, 'Such Great Heights'

Maya Angelou

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."

- Maya Angelou, poet and author

Aesop

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."

- Aesop, Greek slave and fable author

Pat Paulsen

"Assuming either the Left Wing or the Right Wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles."

- Pat Paulsen, comedian

Ovid

"Nothing is stronger than habit."

- Ovid, ancient Roman poet

George Carlin

"It's never just a game when you're winning."

- George Carlin, comedian, actor, author

Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Man is born a predestined idealist, for he is born to act. To act is to affirm the worth of an end, and to persist in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, author, poet, physician

Two Door Cinema Club

"Something good can work and it can work for you."

- Two Door Cinema Club, 'Something Good Can Work'

William Penn

"A good End cannot sanctify evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it."

- William Penn, entrepreneur, philosopher, religious leader

Fran Lebowitz

"Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep."

- Fran Lebowitz, author

William Shakespeare

"How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees."

- William Shakespeare, playwright and poet

Alexander Pope

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast
Man never Is, but always To be blest
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come."

- 'An Essay On Man' by Alexander Pope

Ambrose Bierce

"Lawyer, n.: One skilled in circumvention of the law"

- "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

Charlie Chaplin

"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles."

- Charlie Chaplin, actor, director and composer

Noah and the Whale

"You can give up anything when you're following your heart."

- Noah and the Whale, 'My Broken Heart'

Bill Vaughan

"If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity."

- Bill Vaughan, columnist and author

Albert Einstein

"The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible."

- Albert Einstein, physicist

Confucius

"Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses."

- Confucius, philosopher and social activist

Francois de la Rochefoucauld

"He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks."

- Francois de la Rochefoucauld, author

Norman Cousins

"Death is not the greatest loss in life, the greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."

- Norman Cousins, journalist, author, professor and activist

John Gay

"Cowards are cruel, but the brave
Love mercy, and delight to save."

- John Gay, poet and playwright

Michelle Branch

"Maybe someday the truth will set you free."

- Michelle Branch, 'Ready To Let You Go'

Mary Shelley

"The beginning is always today."

- Mary Shelley, author, playwright

George Bernard Shaw

"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."

- George Bernard Shaw, critic and playwright

George Santayana

"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval."

- George Santayana, philosopher, poet, author

Albert von Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt

"A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind."

- Albert von Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt, scientist

Robert Smith

"Like I can't cry for myself so I will let this song take all of the things inside I can't let anyone else see and offer it up, as if the sound were some kind of god, and my pain is some kind of sacrifice."

- Robert Smith, musician (lead singer/guitarist of The Cure) and songwriter

Steven Wright

"Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time."

- Steven Wright, actor and comedian

eastmountainsouth

"Tell your stories in all your sorrow, take the stage like there was no tomorrow."

- eastmountainsouth, 'All The Stars'

Eric Schmidt

"None of us is as smart as all of us."

- Eric Schmidt, engineer and businessman

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Do not waste yourself in rejection; do not bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher, poet

W. Somerset Maugham

"It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for they are full of the truthless ideal which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real, they are bruised and wounded."

- 'Of Human Bondage' by W. Somerset Maugham

Henry Fielding

"A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not."

- Henry Fielding, author and playwright

Agatha Christie

"If one sticks too rigidly to one's principles, one would hardly see anybody."

- Agatha Christie, author and playwright

Tecumseh

"When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home."

- Tecumseh, Native American leader

Erin McCarley

"Just say what you're feeling."

- Erin McCarley, 'Pony (It's OK)'

Will Rogers

"There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."

- Will Rogers, comedian, actor, social commentator

J. K. Rowling

"It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be."

- J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

Publilius Syrus

"As men, we are all equal in the presence of death."

- Publilius Syrus, ancient Roman writer

Woody Allen

"You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred."

- Woody Allen, filmmaker, actor, comedian

Henry David Thoreau

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."

- Henry David Thoreau, author, poet, developmental critic

Josh Billings

"About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment."

- Josh Billings, author

Florence + the Machine

"Leave all your love and your longing behind, you can't carry it with you if you want to survive."

- Florence + the Machine, 'Dog Days Are Over'

Ambrose Bierce

"Bore, n.: A person who talks when you wish him to listen."

"The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

Ellen DeGeneres

"The only thing that scares me more than space aliens is the idea that there aren't any space aliens. We can't be the best that creation has to offer. I pray we're not all there is. If so, we're in big trouble."

- Ellen DeGeneres, comedian

Bertrand Russell

"To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead."

- Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, historian

Lou Holtz

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."

- Lou Holtz, motivational speaker, coach, author

Bill Vaughan

"We learn something every day, and lots of times it's that what we learned the day before was wrong."

- Bill Vaughan, columnist and author

Havelock Ellis

"The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum."

- Havelock Ellis, psychologist

Fall Out Boy

"The poets are just kids who didn't make it, and never had it at all."

- Fall Out Boy, 'I've Got A Dark Alley And A Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song)'

Oscar Wilde

"Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes."

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist, critic

Albert Einstein

"If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."

- Albert Einstein, physicist

Plato

"Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet."

- Plato, ancient Greek philosopher and author

Ronald Reagan

"Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music."

- Ronald Reagan, former US president

John Cage

"The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason."

- John Cage, composer, philosopher, poet, artist

Graham Greene

"In human relationships, kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths."

- Graham Greene, author, playwright, literary critic

Eurythmics

"Everybody's looking for something."

- Eurythmics, 'Sweet Dreams'

Dag Hammarskjold

"Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for."

- Dag Hammarskjold, diplomat, economist, author

Sue Monk Kidd

"That's what I told myself five hundred times: impossibility. I can tell you this much: the word is a great big log thrown on the fires of love."

- 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd

Cicero

"Friendship makes prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it."

- Cicero, ancient Roman orator, politician and author

Abraham Lincoln

"I will prepare and someday my chance will come."

- Abraham Lincoln, former president of the USA

eastmountainsouth

"All the stars that fill the sky, they burn out before our eyes."

- eastmountainsouth, 'All The Stars'

Maya Angelou

"Determine to live life with flair and laughter."

- Maya Angelou, poet and author

The Beatles

"There will be an answer, let it be."

- The Beatles, 'Let It Be'

Amy Lowell

"Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in."

- Amy Lowell, poet

Friedrich Nietzsche

“Love is a state in which a man sees things most decidedly as they are not.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche, scholar, philosopher and developmental critic

Vincent Van Gogh

"Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all" 

– Vincent Van Gogh, artist

Agatha Christie

"I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble."

- Agatha Christie, author and playwright

Noah Porter

"Remember that what you believe will depend very much on what you are."

- Noah Porter, philosopher, educator, clergyman

John Lilly

"In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true."

- John Lilly, physician, scientist, philosopher, writer

Henry Miller

"Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself."

- Henry Miller, author and painter

Elbert Hubbard

"To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."

- Elbert Hubbard, author, artist, philosopher

Brandi Carlile

"Life is not a looking glass,
Don't get tangled in your past
Like I am learning not to."

- Brandi Carlile, 'Pride And Joy'

Bob Dylan

"He not busy being born is busy dying."

- Bob Dylan, singer

Ambrose Bierce

"Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion."

- "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

Jane Austen

"We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be."

- 'Mansfield Park' by Jane Austen

Ayn Rand

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it."

- "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand

Albert Camus

"Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day."

- Albert Camus, author, philosopher, journalist

Josh Billings

"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute."

- Josh Billings, author

Kate York

"You can climb a mountain and reach the top alone,

You can build a mansion and never have a home,

You can keep anything you want and still have nothing to show 
Until you give it away.
That's the thing about love,
You've gotta give it away,
You can't get it back without giving it away."

- Kate York, 'Give It Away'

George Jean Nathan

"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles."

- George Jean Nathan, critic and editor

Euripides

"Waste not fresh tears over old griefs."

- Euripides, ancient Greek playwright

Fleetwood Mac

"Thunder only happens when it's raining."

- Fleetwood Mac, 'Dreams'

Epictetus

"If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase."

- Epictetus, philosopher

Alfred North Whitehead

"There are no whole truths; all truths are half- truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil."

- Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher

George Santayana

"Music is essentially useless, as life is: but both have an ideal extension which lends utility to its conditions."

- George Santayana, philosopher, poet and author

Heraclitus

"Nothing endures but change."

- Heraclitus, ancient Greek philosopher

Andy Warhol

"Art is anything you can get away with."

- Andy Warhol, artist

Sue Monk Kidd

"Danger, I realised, was a thing you got used to."

- 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd

Ovid

"Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish."

- Ovid, ancient Roman poet

Woody Allen

"Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable."

- Woody Allen, filmmaker, actor, comedian

Herbert Bayard Swope

"I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time."

- Herbery Bayard Swope, editor and journalist

Paul Valery

"Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content."

- Paul Valery, poet, philosopher, author

Alan Watts

"Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command."

- Alan Watts, philosopher, author, orator

Kate York

"It takes a crash to need a rescue."

- Kate York, 'For You'

James Oppenheim

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet."

- James Oppenheim, author, poet, editor

Pierre Beaumarchais

"It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them."

- Pierre Beaumarchais, playwright

Bertrand Russell

"Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons."

- Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, historian

George Bernard Shaw

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."

- George Bernard Shaw, critic and playwright

Mahatma Gandhi

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

- Mahatma Gandhi, activist, political and spiritual leader

Sarah Bernhardt

"Life engenders life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich."

- Sarah Bernhardt, actress

George Eliot

"I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music."

- George Eliot, author

Sue Monk Kidd

"There is nothing perfect... There is only life."

- 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd

Helen Keller

"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."

- Helen Keller, author and activist

Ambrose Bierce

"Optimist, n. A proponent of the doctrine that black is white."

- "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

Bob Hope

"A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it."

- Bob Hope, comedian and actor

Euripides

"Many matters the gods bring to surprising ends.
The things we thought would happen do not happen;
The unexpected God makes possible."

- 'Medea' by Euripides

Henry David Thoreau

"Things do not change; we change."

- Henry David Thoreau, author, poet, developmental critic

Corita Kent

"Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries."

- Corita Kent, artist and teacher

Emily Dickinson

"They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse."

- Emily Dickinson, poet

Scott Adams

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

- Scott Adams, cartoonist

Josh Billings

"There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness."

- Josh Billings, author

Aldous Huxley

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

- Aldous Huxley, author and critic

Gustave Flaubert

"To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost."

- Gustave Flaubert, author

Ralph W. Sockman

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority."

- Ralph W. Sockman, pastor and author

Jennifer Johnston

"It is what brushes off against us after we are born that makes us what we are."

- 'How Many Miles To Babylon?' by Jennifer Johnston

Abraham Lincoln

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

- Abraham Lincoln, former president of the USA

Sydney J. Harris

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."

- Sydney J. Harris, journalist

Euripides

"The wisest men follow their own direction."

- Euripides, ancient Greek playwright

Sue Monk Kidd

"Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here."

- 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd

William Shakespeare

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Friedrich Nietzsche

"No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, scholar, philosopher and developmental critic

J. K. Rowling

"It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more."

- J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

Patrick Kavanagh

"Nothing whatever is by love debarred"

- 'The Hospital' by Patrick Kavanagh

Maybe surprisingly, Kavanagh wrote this poem about "the functional ward of a chest hospital." Kavanagh describes its plainness, ugliness, even - "an art lover's woe" but it was here that Kavanagh was treated for lung cancer and saved, and thus, despite his preconceptions he "fell in love" with the hospital. In my opinon, that's Kavanagh's greatest attribute - his ability to see beauty where others cannot.

Oscar Wilde

"The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for."

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt, politician, former president of the USA

Albert Einstein

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

- Albert Einstein, physicist

William Shakespeare

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends
Rough-hew them how we will."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Joseph Chilton Pearce

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."

- Joseph Chilton Pearce, author

Aristotle

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies."

- Aristotle, philosopher

Albert Schweitzer

"Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory."

- Albert Schweitzer, theologian, musician, philosopher and physician

Edgar Allan Poe

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."

- Edgar Allan Poe, author, poet, literary critic

Aeschylus

"In war, truth is the first casualty."

- Aeschylus, ancient Greek playwright

Sue Monk Kidd

"'We can't think of changing our skin,' he said. 'Change the world - that's how we gotta think.'"

- 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd

William Shakespeare

"Assume a virtue, if you have it not."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Ambrose Bierce

"Year, n. A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments."

- "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

Henry Ward Beecher

"I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love."

- Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman, orator and social reformer

Henry David Thoreau

"Love is an attempt to change a piece of a dream-world into reality."

- Henry David Thoreau, author, poet, developmental critic

Mark Twain

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

- Mark Twain, author

Lewis Carroll

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."

- Lewis Carroll, author, mathematician, photographer

G. K. Chesterton

"The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost."

- G. K. Chesterton, author, journalist

William Shakespeare

"Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Morrie Schwartz

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”

– Morrie Schwartz, teacher and author

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

“If you want things to stay as they are, things will have to change”

- Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author

Plato

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.”

– Plato, ancient Greek philosopher and author

Oscar Wilde

“The heart was made to be broken”

– Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Jennifer Johnston

"Some people are born old and never get any younger."

- 'How Many Miles To Babylon?' by Jennifer Johnston

W. B. Yeats

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity"

- 'The Second Coming' by W. B. Yeats

Feeling a little bit apocalyptic today. If you are too, read this poem. Terrifying.

William Shakespeare

"The dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Sue Monk Kidd

"The secret of a good lie is don't overly explain, and throw in one good detail."

- 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd

Maya Angelou

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

– Maya Angelou, poet and author

Nathaniel Hawthorne

“No man, for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”

– Nathaniel Hawthorne, author

George Bernard Shaw

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

– George Bernard Shaw, critic and playwright

Tryon Edwards

"Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past."

- Tryon Edwards, theologian

C. S. Lewis

“You don’t have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body.”

– C. S. Lewis, author

William Shakespeare

"'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Publilius Syrus

"Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it."

- Publilius Syrus, ancient Roman writer

Adele

"Sometimes it lasts, in love, but sometimes it hurts instead."

- Adele, 'Someone Like You'

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we will not find it.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher, poet

Plutarch

"We ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household belongings, which when worn with use we throw away."

- Plutarch, ancient Greek historian

Laurence J. Peter

"In spite of the cost of living, it's still popular."

- Laurence J. Peter, teacher and writer

Kin Hubbard

"It ain't no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be."

- Kin Hubbard, cartoonist, humourist, journalist

William Shakespeare

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Sue Monk Kidd

"It's something everybody wants - for someone to see that hurt done to them and set it down like it matters."

- 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd

Thomas Edison

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

- Thomas Edison, inventor

Ambrose Bierce

"Optimism, n. The doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly."

- "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

Vincent Van Gogh

"Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence."

- Vincent Van Gogh, artist

Victor Hugo

"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."

- Victor Hugo, poet, playwright, novelist, statesman, human rights activist

John Updike

"All that lives must die. To waste this life in fretful care for the next, or for a future calamity - that, too, is a sin. Birth lays upon us the natural commandment to love each day and what it brings."

- 'Gertrude and Claudius' by John Updike

William Shakespeare

"To be or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?"

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

George E. Woodberry

"If you can't have faith in what is held up to you for faith, you must find things to believe in yourself, for a life without faith in something is too narrow a space to live."

- George E. Woodberry, poet and critic

Dave Barry

"Another possible source of guidance for teenagers is television, but television's message has always been that the need for truth, wisdom and world peace pales by comparison with the need for a toothpaste that offers whiter teeth *and* fresher breath."

- Dave Barry, author and columnist

Douglas Adams

"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."

- Douglas Adams, author and dramatist

Wendell Phillips

"What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better."

- Wendell Phillips, abolitionist and activist

Euripides

“Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.”

- Euripides, ancient Greek playwright

Mark Twain

"A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain."

- Mark Twain, author

William Shakespeare

"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god!"

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Jennifer Johnston

"To be a beautiful woman must be a terrible thing. To always expect people to die for you. To always have in front of you the prospect of decay."

- 'How Many Miles To Babylon?' by Jennifer Johnston

W. B. Yeats

"O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity."

- 'Sailing To Byzantium' by W. B. Yeats

In this poem, Yeats is despairing of his ageing body, and he yearns to be immortalised in art, to be taken into "the artifice of eternity," that is, for him, art. I was particularly struck by this quote, I think you really feel his desperation to escape his own frail humanity, as he begs - "Consume my heart away, sick with desire and fastened to a dying animal, it knows not what it is." - he is searching for a way to make himself - his heart - eternal. He does not want to be merely human, put simply, he does not want to die - and I think that is the most human desire of all.

Theodore Roosevelt

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt, former president of the USA

Sue Monk Kidd

"There is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it."

- 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd

William Wordsworth

"If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;
And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine
God being with thee when we know it not."

- 'It is a beauteous evening, calm and free' by William Wordsworth

Wordsworth wrote this poem about his daughter. Being, as he was, so awestruck by nature, he found it hard to comprehend his daughter's apparent lack of connection to it, lack of appreciation for the divine in the physical. However, although she was "untouched by solemn thought," Wordsworth believes that she has a deeper connection with God, as she is so young, so innocent, so pure. Although, she seems to have no conscious connection to God, in reality, her very being is an expression of God.

Friedrich Nietzsche

"Man is the cruelest animal."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, scholar, philosopher and developmental critic

William Shakespeare

"To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand"

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Tryon Edwards

"If you would know anything thoroughly, teach it to others."

- Tryon Edwards, theologian

Adrienne Rich

"A year, ten years from now, I'll remember this; not why, only that we were here like this, together."

- Adrienne Rich, poet

J. K. Rowling

"The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must therefore be treated with great caution."

- J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"

Publilius Syrus

"It is folly to punish your neighbor by fire when you live next door."

- Publilius Syrus, ancient Roman writer

Dwight D. Eisenhower

“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.”

- Dwight D. Eisenhower, former president of the USA

Emily Dickinson

"After great pain, a formal feeling comes -
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs -
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?"

- 'After great pain, a formal feeling comes' by Emily Dickinson

William Shakespeare

"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain"

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Laurence J. Peter

"Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents' shortcomings."

- Laurence J. Peter, teacher and writer

Kin Hubbard

"Nobody ever forgets where he buried the hatchet."

- Kin Hubbard, cartoonist, humourist, journalist

Sophocles

"Show me the man whose happiness was anything more than illusion followed by disillusion."

- 'Oedipus the King' by Sophocles

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning, and under every deep a lower deep opens."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher, poet

Havelock Ellis

"The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw."

- Havelock Ellis, psychologist

Ambrose Bierce

"Mayonnaise: One of the sauces which serve the French in place of a state religion."

- "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

William Shakespeare

"How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on 't! O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Sue Monk Kidd

"The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."

- 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd

John Quincy Adams

"A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle."

- John Quincy Adams, former president of the USA

Winston Churchill

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

- Winston Churchill, former Primer Minister of Britain

Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Familiar acts are beautiful through love."

- Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet

George Bernard Shaw

"Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable."

- George Bernard Shaw, critic and playwright

Oscar Wilde

"Who, being loved, is poor?"

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

William Shakespeare

"Give me that man
That is not passion's slave and I will wear him
In my heart's core."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Have decided to do weekly quotes from Hamlet for a little while, as we're studying it at the moment, so think it might be useful. Enjoy :)

Billy Joel

"Honesty is such a lonely word
Everyone is so untrue."

- Billy Joel, 'Honesty'

Benjamin Franklin

"If you would be loved, love and be lovable."

- Benjamin Franklin

Jennifer Johnston

"Real friendship admits recognition of the ugly as well as the beautiful."

- 'How Many Miles To Babylon?' by Jennifer Johnston

Sue Monk Kidd

"Then reality set in, like it always did."

- 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd

William Wordsworth

"O'er my thoughts
There hung a darkness, call it solitude
Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes
Remained, no pleasant images of trees,
Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;
But huge and mighty forms, that do not live
Like living men, moved slowly through the mind
By day, and were a trouble to my dreams."

- 'The Stolen Boat' from 'The Prelude' by William Wordsworth

Anne Frank

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."

- Anne Frank, 'Diary of a Young Girl'

Anatole France

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't."

- Anatole France, poet, journalist, novelist

The Fray

"We never know what's right without pain."

- The Fray, 'All At Once'

Tryon Edwards

"The first step to improvement, whether mental, moral, or religious, is to know ourselves--our weakness, errors, deficiencies, and sins, that, by divine grace, we may overcome and turn from them all."

-Tryon Edwards, theologian

J. K. Rowling

"Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth."

- J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

Publilius Syrus

"Depend not on fortune, but on conduct."

- Publilius Syrus, ancient Roman writer

W. B. Yeats

"We had fed the heart on fantasies,
The heart's grown brutal from the fare;
More substance in our enmities
Than in our love; O honey-bees,
Come build in the empty house of the stare."

- 'The Stare's Nest by my Window' from 'Meditations in the Time of Civil War' by W. B. Yeats

In this poem, Yeats is calling for all of Ireland to come together instead of fighting amongst each other, written as it was during the Civil War. In this particular quote, Yeats is speaking of the "fantasies" of freedom and independence that, although noble in intent, have made the heart "brutal" in its attempts to make these visions reality. Yeats is saying that people have become more focused on their opposition in the Civil War than on their love of Ireland itself. Yeats is appealing to the Irish people to "build" rather than break, now that they finally have their independence.

Kin Hubbard

"Flattery won't hurt you if you don't swallow it."

- Kin Hubbard, cartoonist, humourist and journalist

Robert Frost

"Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better."

- 'Birches' by Robert Frost

Dashboard Confessional

"Don't wait, the lights will flash and fade away,
The days will pass you by, don't wait."

- Dashboard Confessional, 'Don't Wait'

Laurence J. Peter

"There is no stigma attached to recognizing a bad decision in time to install a better one."

-Laurence J. Peter, teacher and writer

William Shakespeare

"And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
Compared with loss of thee, will not seem so."

- William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (Sonnet 90)

Emily Dickinson

"Heavenly Hurt, it gives us -
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are -"

- 'There's a certain Slant of light' by Emily Dickinson

Sophocles

"Count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last."

- 'Oedipus the King' by Sophocles

Ambrose Bierce

"Philosophy, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing."

- "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

Francis Bacon

"Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home."

- Francis Bacon, philosopher, statesman, scientist, author, lawyer

The Corrs

"I know I'm standing on borrowed heaven."

- The Corrs, 'Borrowed Heaven'

Dave Barry

"We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to none in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it."

- Dave Barry, author and columnist

Patrick Kavanagh

"O I loved too much and by such by such is happiness thrown away"

- 'On Raglan Road' by Patrick Kavanagh

Virgil

"Each of us bears his own Hell."

- Virgil, 'The Aeneid'

Maya Angelou

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."

- Maya Angelou, poet and author

J. K. Rowling

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."

- J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"

Edith Wharton

"The thing one's so certain of in advance: can it ever make one's heart beat as wildly?"

- 'The Age of Innocence' by Edith Wharton

Coldplay

"Lights will guide you home and ingnite your bones."

- Coldplay, 'Fix You'

Maya Angelou

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

– Maya Angelou, poet and author

Franklin D. Roosevelt

"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt, politician, former president of the USA

John Updike

"Without love, we die, or at best live stunted."

- 'Gertrude and Claudius' by John Updike

W. B. Yeats

"When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?"

- 'Easter 1916' by W. B. Yeats

Tom Krause

“Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.”

– Tom Krause, motivational speaker, teacher and coach

Maya Angelou

"Nat King Cole warned the world to 'straighten up and fly right.' As if they could, as if human beings could make a choice."

- 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings' by Maya Angelou

The Beatles

“And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me”

- The Beatles, 'Let It Be'

George Bernard Shaw

“If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance.”

– George Bernard Shaw, playwright and critic

Bob Dylan

“No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.”

- Bob Dylan, singer

Friedrich Nietzsche

"In truth, there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, scholar, philosopher and developmental critic

Martin Luther King Jr.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

- Martin Luther King Jr., social activist and reformer

Lillian Hellman

"Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth."

- Lillian Hellman, playwright

Oscar Wilde

"A kiss may ruin a human life."

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Owl City

"When violet eyes get brighter
And heavy wings get lighter
I'll touch the sky and feel alive again."

- Owl City, 'Vanilla Twilight'

William Shakespeare

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we may."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Robert Frost

"'Men work together,' I told him from the heart,
'Whether they work together or apart.'"

- 'The Tuft of Flowers' by Robert Frost

William Shakespeare

"Love is not love
Which alters where it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to the remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark"

- William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (Sonnet 116)

Laurence J. Peter

"Speak when you are angry - and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret."

- Laurence J. Peter, teacher and writer

H. L. Mencken

"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking."

- H. L. Mencken, journalist, editor, satirist, critic

Harold Wilson

"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

- Harold Wilson, politician, former Prime Minister of Britain

Harper Lee

"If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other?"

- 'To Kill A Mockingbird' by Harper Lee

Ambrose Bierce

"Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another."

- "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

Henry David Thoreau

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler."

- Henry David Thoreau, author, poet, developmental critic

Adrienne Rich

"Was it worth while to lay -
with infinite exertion -
a roof I can't live under?"

- 'The Roofwalker' by Adrienne Rich

In this poem, Rich talks about her fear of exposing herself artistically, but also of the unhappiness that comes with stifling her creativity. She talks of the male-dominated world of poetry, which she is afraid to enter, because she will be vulnerable, exposed, but she wonders in these lines if the effort it has taken to restrict herself creatively has even been worth it, as now she feels that she can no longer hide beneath the roof she has built for herself. In addition, I think it's interesting that the term "glass ceiling" had not been coined at the time this poem was written (1961) yet when we read it now, it has that double meaning, although Rich's ceiling is self-constructed.

Dorothy Parker

"They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm."

- Dorothy Parker, poet and satirist

Alfred Tennyson

"Hope smiles on the threshold of the year to come, whispering that it will be happier."

- Alfred Tennyson, poet