The human heart in its perversity finds it hard to escape hatred and revenge.
—Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Italian Jewish Rabbi)
My chief task has been to conquer fear. The public sees only the thrill of the accomplished trick; they have no conception of the tortuous preliminary self-training that was necessary to conquer fear… no one except myself can appreciate how I have to work at this job every single day, never letting up for a moment. I always have on my mind the thought that next year I must do something greater, something more wonderful.
—Harry Houdini (Hungarian-born American Magician)
The mill wheel turns, it turns forever, though what is uppermost remains not so.
—Bertolt Brecht (German Poet)
Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.
—Walt Whitman (American Poet)
It’s a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up.
—J. K. Rowling (British Children’s Books Writer)
Those who are prepared to die for any cause are seldom defeated.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian Head of State)
A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.
—Chinese Proverb
The cause of most of man’s unhappiness is sacrificing what he wants most for what he wants now.
—Gordon B. Hinckley (American Mormon Religious Leader)