Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of greater vanity in others; it makes us vain, in fact, of our modesty.
—Louis Kronenberger (American Literary Critic)
Life—how curious is that habit that makes us think it is not here, but elsewhere.
—V. S. Pritchett (British Short Story Writer)
When you give each other everything, it becomes an even trade. Each wins all.
—Lois McMaster Bujold (American Writer)
Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you—you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russian Novelist)
Heavy thoughts bring on physical maladies; when the soul is oppressed so is the body.
—Martin Luther (German Protestant Theologian)
The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher, Mathematician)
I believe in grumbling; it is the politest form of fighting known.
—E. W. Howe (American Novelist)
A botanist should be a man of a liberal and enlarged mind, who looks upon all the productions of nature with an eye of science, but with a heart of sensibility.
—James Edward Smith (English Botanist)
Only the brave know how to forgive… A coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.
—Laurence Sterne (Irish Anglican Novelist)
How inimitably graceful children are in general before they learn to dance!
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (English Poet)
Heaven will permit no man to secure happiness by crime.
—Vittorio Alfieri (Italian Poet, Dramatist)
While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive.
—Sissela Bok (Swedish Philosopher)
When will poets learn that a grass-blade of their own raising is worth a barrow-load of flowers from their neighbor’s garden?
—James Russell Lowell (American Poet, Critic)
Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once.
—Woody Allen (American Film Actor, Director)