I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaThe most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.
J. K. RowlingI am not a fan of books.
Kanye WestWhat do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.
Mahatma GandhiAs in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.
Henry David ThoreauThere is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
Thomas CarlyleHesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age.
Ernest HemingwayWhen you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star.
David BowieI’ve got no need to prove to myself that I can do Shakespeare. I’ve done it.
Anthony HopkinsEven in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
C. S. LewisWhat’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
William ShakespeareI was always very curious as a young man about why older writers who I met seemed so indifferent to what was going on, whereas I, in my 20s, was reading everything. Everything seemed important. But they were only interested in the writers they admired when they were young, and I didn’t understand it then, but now, now I understand it.
Paul AusterThe political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.
Carl von ClausewitzRealists do not fear the results of their study.
Fyodor DostoevskyWhen the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Hunter S. ThompsonIf everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‚Why the hell not?‘
John WayneThis above all; to thine own self be true.
William ShakespeareThe earth laughs in flowers.
Ralph Waldo EmersonYou do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.
Lyndon B. JohnsonDon Quixote’s misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza.
Franz KafkaI can express all my views on the slavery question by quotations from Henry Clay.
Abraham LincolnI’ve read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, ‚Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.‘ I don’t want to be part of that.
Matthew McConaugheyThe United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken.
Nelson MandelaSleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed.
Arthur SchopenhauerIf music be the food of love, play on.
William ShakespeareI’m the first to admit this whole salary thing is getting out of control. In the final analysis, it’s still about the work.
Jim CarreyGet your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
Mark TwainImmigration laws are the only laws that are discussed in terms of how to help people who break them.
Thomas SowellWhen you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.
Franklin D. RooseveltPop is totally results-oriented and there is a very strong feedback loop.
Brian EnoCertainly, if you look at human behavior around the world, you have to admit that we can be very aggressive.
Jane GoodallI don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
J. R. R. TolkienFrom a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the ‚Pilgrim’s Progress,‘ my first collection was of John Bunyan’s works in separate little volumes.
Benjamin FranklinRead not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to weigh and consider.
Francis BaconSome books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Francis BaconSome people think literature is high culture and that it should only have a small readership. I don’t think so… I have to compete with popular culture, including TV, magazines, movies and video games.
Haruki MurakamiTo insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well.
Albert CamusI’ve never known any trouble than an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.
Arthur SchopenhauerThere are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.
Charles DickensNothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.
Albert CamusThe most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job.
Napoleon HillIt’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions.
BonoSee first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.
Douglas AdamsEver since Newton, we’ve done science by taking things apart to see how they work. What the computer enables us to do is to put things together to see how they work: we’re now synthesized rather than analysed. I find one of the most enthralling aspects of computers is limitless communication.
Douglas AdamsIt’s not easy to define poetry.
Bob DylanThere is creative reading as well as creative writing.
Ralph Waldo EmersonAs flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.
William ShakespeareScience without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert EinsteinBooks are alive, you see. They’re not dead, they’re alive.
Ray BradburyLiterature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
Gilbert K. ChestertonThe ‚free-floating intellectual‘ may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.
Noam ChomskyWhat we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt.
Jim MattisO! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!
William ShakespearePoetry and lyrics are very similar. Making words bounce off a page.
Taylor SwiftIssues are never simple. One thing I’m proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.
Barack ObamaGive me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me.
William ShakespeareThe concept of Kimye has more cultural significance than what Page Six could write.
Kanye WestWell, when you come down to it, I don’t see that a reporter could do much to a president, do you?
Dwight D. EisenhowerThere was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
AristotleI must be cruel, only to be kind.
William Shakespeare