" He had occasional flashes of silence, that made his conversation perfectly delightful. "

Sydney Smith, referring to Macaulay English essayist (1771 – 1845)

" They were going to die. They knew it, and their last words were I love you. Even in great pain, their last words were of love… People who could have saved themselves and they ran back in to save others instead. If humanity is capable of that, how can I lose hope in humanity? "

Elie Wiesel, Chicago Sun-Times, November 5, 2001 US (Romanian-born) activist, novelist (1928 – )

" It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. "

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets British fantasy author

" The leaven of true leadership cannot lift others unless we are with and serve those to be led. "

Spencer W. Kimball

" It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it. "

Upton Sinclair US novelist & socialist politician (1878 – 1968)

" Success, in a generally accepted sense of the term, means the opportunity to experience and to realize to the maximum the forces that are within us. "

David Sarnoff

" The only way to succeed is to make people hate you. "

Josef von Sternberg

" Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane. "

H. P. Lovecraft US horror & supernatural author (1890 – 1937)

" One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. "

Bob Marley

" I think that the Communist Party as a political organization is of no danger to the United States. It has no following and has been disregarded by the American people for many, many years. "

Robert F. Kennedy, “A Thousand Days,” by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. [1965] US Democratic politician (1925 – 1968)

" Immature love says, I love you because I need you, mature love says, I need you because I love you. "

Winston Churchill

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

Ovid Roman poet (43 BC – 17 AD)

" God invented whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world. "

Ed McMahon

" Hobbies cost money but interests are free. "

George Carlin, George Carlin: You Are All Diseased US comedian and actor (1937 – )

" No man is free who is not master of himself. "

Epictetus Roman (Greek-born) slave & Stoic philosopher (55 AD – 135 AD)

" There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream – whatever that dream might be. "

Pearl Buck US novelist in China (1892 – 1973)

" Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature. "

Cicero Roman author, orator, & politician (106 BC – 43 BC)

" We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. "

Ralph Waldo Emerson US essayist & poet (1803 – 1882)

" A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril. "

Sir Winston Churchill British politician (1874 – 1965)

" The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons. Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. "

Abraham Lincoln 16th president of US (1809 – 1865)

" To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. "

Oscar Wilde Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 – 1900)

" Social engaged intellectuals must accept reality as they found it and shape it toward positive social goals, not stand aside in self-righteous isolation. "

John Dewey US educator, Pragmatist philosopher, & psychologist (1859 – 1952)

" Has not peace honours and glories of her own unattended by the dangers of war? "

Hermocrates of Syracuse

" We live as we dream – alone. "

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness English (Polish-Ukrainian-born) novelist (1857 – 1924)

" The American people would not want to know of any misquotes that Dan Quayle may or may not make. "

Dan Quayle US Republican politician (1947 – )

" He that is busy is tempted by but one devil; he that is idle, by a legion. "

Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732 English clergyman & historian (1608 – 1661)

" The first kiss is stolen by the man; the last is begged by the woman. "

H. L. Mencken US editor (1880 – 1956)

" Fear is the tax that conscience pays to guilt. "

George Sewell

" They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum. "

Tallulah Bankhead US movie actress (1903 – 1968)

" Children are guilty of unpardonable rudeness when they spit in the face of a companion; neither are they excusable who spit from windows or on walls or furniture. "

St. John Baptist de La Salle, The Rules of Christian Manners and Civility (c. 1695)

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