"You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts."
— Kahlil Gibrán

"Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. "
— Kahlil Gibrán

"To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to."
— Kahlil Gibrán

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars."
— Kahlil Gibrán

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
— Abraham Lincoln

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."
— Abraham Lincoln

"I am a slow walker, but I never walk back."
— Abraham Lincoln

"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being."
— Abraham Lincoln

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
— Helen Keller

"Observe the wonders as they occur around you.
Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent."
— Kahlil Gibrán

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
— Marianne Williamson (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles)

"I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker."
— Stanley Kubrick

"If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered."
— Stanley Kubrick

"We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered."
— Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)

"It's no trick loving somebody at their best. Love is loving them at their worst."
— Tom Stoppard

"Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour, but there is something wrong with the picture. Where is the unity, the meaning, of nature's highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and wilfulness have their correction in the vast underground river which, without a doubt, is carrying us to the place where we're expected! But there is no such place, that's why it's called utopia. The death of a child has no more meaning than the death of armies, of nations. Was the child happy while he lived? That is a proper question, the only question. If we can't arrange our own happiness, it's a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us."
— Tom Stoppard (The Coast of Utopia)

"All secrets become deep. All secrets become dark. That's in the nature of secrets."
— Cory Doctorow (Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town)

"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral."
— Leo Tolstoy

"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles."
— Charlie Chaplin