Life is the flower for which love is the honey.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)
To understand Europe, you have to be a genius – or French.
—Madeleine Albright (Czech-born American Diplomat)
The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.
—C. S. Lewis (Irish-born Author, Scholar)
The noblest motive is the public good.
—Virgil (Roman Poet)
An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.
—Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Cato) (Roman Statesman)
The double betrayal of a modern liberal arts education: it neither teaches you how to live nor how to work.
—Alain de Botton (Swiss-born British Philosopher)
My only objection to the custom of giving books as Christmas presents is perhaps the selfish one that it encourages and keeps in the game a number of writers who would be far better employed if they abandoned the pen and took to work.
—P. G. Wodehouse (English Novelist)
Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.
—John Stuart Mill (English Philosopher, Economist)
Laughter is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to the human species.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Historian, Essayist)
Don’t wait for moods. You’ll accomplish nothing.
—Pearl S. Buck (American Novelist)
I have been very happy, very rich, very beautiful, much adulated, very famous, and very unhappy.
—Brigitte Bardot (French Film Star)
I have a wife, I have sons; all these hostages have I given to fortune.
—F. L. Lucas (English Literary Critic)
I’m going to take the high road because the low road is so crowded.
—Mia Farrow (American Actress, Activist)
To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
—George Washington (American Head of State)
The only sin is mediocrity.
—Martha Graham (American Choreographer)
Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.
—Gertrude Stein (American Writer)
I don’t care what is written about me so long as it isn’t true.
—Katharine Hepburn (American Actor)
The essence of the liberal outlook is a belief that men should be free to question anything if they can support their questioning by solid arguments.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher, Mathematician)