James

“This is a fault common to singers that among their friends they were never inclined to sing when they were asked, unasked they never desist.”
― Horace

“Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?"
Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”
― Isaac Asimov

“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
― Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome

“We were language's magpies by nature, stealing whatever sounded bright and shiny.”
― Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet