" Each of us visits this Earth involuntarily, and without an invitation. For me, it is enough to wonder at the secrets. "

Albert Einstein US (German-born) physicist (1879 – 1955)

" Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. "

Thomas Jefferson 3rd president of US (1743 – 1826)

" There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness. "

Pearl Buck US novelist in China (1892 – 1973)

" Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it. "

Dave Barry US columnist & humorist (1947 – )

" There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. "

Sir Francis Bacon, “Of Beauty” English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 – 1626)

" The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart. "

Helen Keller US blind & deaf educator (1880 – 1968)

" Suffering is none the less acute and much more lasting when it is put into words. "

Evelyn Waugh, Work Suspended (1943) English novelist & satirist (1903 – 1966)

" We rarely confide in those who are better than we are. "

Albert Camus French existentialist author & philosopher (1913 – 1960)

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

Douglas Adams English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 – 2001)

" Please choose the way of peace. … In the short term there may be winners and losers in this war that we all dread. But that never can, nor never will justify the suffering, pain and loss of life your weapons will cause. "

Mother Teresa, — Letter to U.S. President George Bush and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, January 1991. Indian humanitarian & missionary (1910 – 1997)

" To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of things eternal; to knowledge, the rational apprehension of things temporal. "

Saint Augustine Carthaginian author, saint, & church father (354 AD – 430 AD)

" A chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise. "

George Steiner

" Take away the right to say “fuck” and you take away the right to say “fuck the government.” "

Lenny Bruce (1923 – 1966)

" Our deeds follow us, and what we have been makes us what we are. "

John Dykes

" An income tax form is like a laundry list — either way you lose your shirt. "

Fred Allen US radio comedian (1894 – 1956)

" The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! "

William Wordsworth, The World is Too Much With Us English poet (1770 – 1850)

" I am a man: I hold that nothing human is alien to me. "

Terence Roman comic dramatist (185 BC – 159 BC)

" Santa Claus had the right idea. Visit everyone once a year. "

Victor Borges

" How terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have it. "

Sophocles, Tiresias. Oedipus the King 315 Greek tragic dramatist (496 BC – 406 BC)

" Making music should not be left to the professionals. "

Michelle Shocked

" When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. "

Eric Hoffer (1902 – 1983)

" Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped. "

Elbert Hubbard US author (1856 – 1915)

" Each body has its art… "

Gwendolyn Brooks US poet (1917 – )

" We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us. "

Eric Hoffer (1902 – 1983)

" It is very strange that the years teach us patience – that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting. "

Elizabeth Taylor, “A Wreath of Roses” British movie actress (1932 – )

" Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing. "

Dick Brandon

" I take the view, and always have, that if you cannot say what you are going to say in twenty minutes you ought to go away and write a book about it. "

Lord Brabazon (1884 – 1964)

" I do not know the American gentleman, god forgive me for putting two such words together. "

Charles Dickens English novelist (1812 – 1870)

" . . . .When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer – say traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best, and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them… "

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Austrian composer & prodigy (1756 – 1791)

" Confession is good for the soul only in the sense that a tweed coat is good for dandruff – it is a palliative rather than a remedy. "

Peter De Vries

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