The ghostly consciousness of wrong.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Historian, Essayist)
Now will I show myself to have more of the serpent than the dove; that is—more knave than fool.
—Christopher Marlowe (English Playwright)
No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us.
—Charles Caleb Colton (English Clergyman, Aphorist)
The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)
It is only the affirmation of the power of the mind which knows itself capable of conceiving the indefinite repetition of the same act when once this act is possible. The mind has a direct intuition of this power, and experience can only give occasion for using it and thereby becoming conscious of it.
—Henri Poincare (French Mathematician)
Anyone must be mainly ignorant or thoughtless, who is surprised at everything he sees; or wonderfully conceited who expects everything to conform to his standard of propriety.
—William Hazlitt (English Essayist)
Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (American Head of State)
The only real elegance is in the mind; if you’ve got that, the rest really comes from it.
—Diana Vreeland (American Fashion Editor)
More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (English Novelist)
A writer without confidence is like a metaphor without something to compare itself to.
—Neil Simon (American Playwright)
Every person has a right to risk their own life for the preservation of it.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French Philosopher)
When you suffer, think not on how you can escape suffering, but concentrate your efforts on what kind of inner moral and spiritual perfection this suffering requires.
—Leo Tolstoy (Russian Novelist)
I believe that my gift in this world is not that I’m smarter or more talented than anyone else: it’s that I had a singular goal. I don’t want other stuff: friends, kids, travel. What makes me happy is writing.
—Ann Patchett (American Novelist)