Those who place their affections at first on trifles for amusement, will find these become at last their most serious concerns.
—Oliver Goldsmith (Anglo-Irish Novelist, Poet)
It is almost never when a state of things is the most detestable that it is smashed, but when, beginning to improve, it permits men to breathe, to reflect, to communicate their thoughts with each other, and to gauge by what they already have the extent of their rights and their grievances. The weight, although less heavy, seems then all the more unbearable.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (French Historian, Political Scientist)
Men are only as great as they are kind.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
—Arthur C. Clarke (English Science-fiction Writer)
Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.
—John Steinbeck (American Novelist)
The condition of being forgiven is self-abandonment. The proud man prefers self-reproach, however painful—because the reproached self isn’t abandoned; it remains intact.
—Aldous Huxley (English Humanist)
The real object of the drama is the exhibition of the human character.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (English Writer, Politician)
The revenge that is postponed is not forgotten.
—Icelandic Proverb