If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow man.
—Francis of Assisi (Italian Monk)
It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.
—Frank O’Hara (American Poet, Art Critic)
Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.
—Frederic Chopin (Polish Composer, Pianist)
There can be no liberty that isn’t earned.
—Robert R. Young (American Financier)
Regret not that which is past; and trust not to thine own righteousness.
—Anthony of Padua (Portuguese Friar)
Argument, again, is the death of conversation, if carried on in a spirit of hostility.
—William Hazlitt (English Essayist)
There is no religion in which everyday life is not considered a prison; there is no philosophy or ideology that does not think that we live in alienation.
—Eugene Ionesco (French Dramatist)
Adversity reminds men of religion.
—Livy (Titus Livius) (Roman Historian)
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
—Thomas Paine (American Nationalist)
Words should not seek to please, to hide the wounds in our bodies, or the shameful moments in our lives. They may hurt, give us pain, but they can also provoke us to question what we have accepted for thousands of years.
—Nawal El Saadawi (Egyptian Writer, Activist)
I get it now; I didn’t get it then. That life is about losing and about doing it as gracefully as possible…and enjoying everything in between.
—Mia Farrow (American Actress, Activist)
Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.
—Khaled Hosseini (Afghan-American Author)
Where duty is plain delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may be both wisdom and safety.
—Tryon Edwards (American Theologian)