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