So many come to the sickroom thinking of themselves as men of science fighting disease and not as healers with a little knowledge helping nature to get a sick man well. ~Auckland Geddes, The Practitioner
The artist's only responsibility is his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one.... If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate: The "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is worth any number of old ladies. ~Faulkner, quoted in M. Cowley, Writers at Work, 1958
If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home. ~James Michener
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone. ~Johann von Goethe
It is not difficult to deceive the first time, for the deceived possesses no antibodies; unvaccinated by suspicion, she overlooks lateness, accepts absurd excuses, permits the flimsiest patching to repair great rents in the quotidian. ~John Updike
Dance is the hidden language of the soul. ~Martha Graham
Television keeps the masses occupied. What if everyone decided they wanted to make something of their lives? Television keeps the competition down and keeps more criminals off the street. What if everyone decided to go to law school or medical school? It would sure make it tough on the rest of us. ~Jim Urbanovich
To learn about eye protection, ask someone who has one. ~Author Unknown
No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness. ~Aristotle
SKIPPING! The hippity hoppity gait that came naturally to us as children, but that the majority of adults haven't done since they were ten... SKIPPING! Like Dorothy and gang did arm in arm down the yellow brick road... SKIPPING! As in expressing joy by leaping happily down the street without a care in the world. ~Kim Corbin, founder of iskip.com
If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. ~Thomas Alva Edison
Not using faults does not mean that one does not have them. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
About a year ago I was a guest on a network news show in New York. They were showing film clips from a gay pride parade down Fifth Avenue, but they only decided to show the part with men in dresses and heels. I had seen the parade, and there were men in business suits as well. After showing the film, the newsperson made some comments, and I found the comments extremely offensive. "This is what's wrong with the media," I said. "You show a fringe position. You show one point of view. You're closing the minds of the people by not showing them what the reality is." I got up and walked out, and I've never been asked back again. ~Kathleen Nolan
Charming people live up to the very edge of their charm, and behave as outrageously as the world lets them. ~Logan Pearsall Smith
To the great tree-loving fraternity we belong. We love trees with universal and unfeigned love, and all things that do grow under them or around them - the whole leaf and root tribe. ~Henry Ward Beecher
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck
Age attacks when we least expect it. ~Carrie Latet
There are few sorrows, however poignant, in which a good income is of no avail. ~Logan Pearsall Smith, "Life and Human Nature," Afterthoughts, 1931
You never know what is enough, until you know what is more than enough. ~William Blake, Proverbs of Hell
Clothes are inevitable. They are nothing less than the furniture of the mind made visible. ~James Laver, Style in Costume
Our tradition is that of the first man who sneaked away to the creek when the tribe did not really need fish. ~Roderick Haig-Brown, about modern fishing, A River Never Sleeps, 1946
And even if you were in some prison, the walls of which let none of the sounds of the world come to your senses - would you not then still have your childhood, that precious, kingly possession, that treasure-house of memories? ~Rainer Maria Rilke
I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants. ~A. Whitney Brown
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. ~Mark Twain