Literature is without proofs. By which it must be understood that it cannot prove, not only what it says, but even that it is worth the trouble of saying it.
—Roland Barthes (French Literary Theorist)
There are twallied powers in man; knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is so much of the truth seen in a distorted medium as the mind arrives at by groping, wisdom what the eye of divine vision sees in the spirit.
—Sri Aurobindo (Indian Yogi, Nationalist)
The better part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)
I’ve always believed in writing without a collaborator, because when two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worries and only half the royalties.
—Agatha Christie (British Novelist)
You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled then something has been lost.
—Martha Graham (American Choreographer)
The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
—Martin Luther (German Protestant Theologian)
A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.
—Golda Meir (Israeli Head of State)
If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of women, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test: though a different opinion prevails in this country.
—Mary Wollstonecraft (British Children’s Books Writer)
The human story does not always unfold like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes in life they make five or minus three; and sometimes the blackboard topples down in the middle of the sum and leaves the class in disorder and the pedagogue with a black eye.
—Winston Churchill (British Head of State)
I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits.
—John Locke (English Philosopher)
Leaders keep their eyes on the horizon, not just on the bottom line.
—Warren Bennis (American Scholar)
Of all follies there is none greater than wanting to make the world a better place.
—Moliere (French Playwright)
The greatest things are accomplished by individual people, not by committees or companies.
—Alfred A. Montapert
There are two ways of exerting one’s strength; one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
—Booker T. Washington (American Educator)
Men lose their tempers in defending their taste.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)
The one prudence of life is concentration.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)