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