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