There isn't time, so brief is life, for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that
— Mark Twain
I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible
— Friedrich Nietzsche
One can promise actions, but not feelings, for the latter are involuntary. He who promises to love forever or hate forever or be forever faithful to someone is promising something that is not in his power
— Friedrich Nietzsche
My solitude doesn’t depend on the presence or absence of people; on the contrary, I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company
— Friedrich Nietzsche
If I waited for perfection... I would never write a word
— Margaret Atwood
Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo
— Jean Cocteau
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage
— Seneca
To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing
— Elbert Hubbard
For years there has been a theory that millions of monkeys typing at random on millions of typewriters would reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. The Internet has proven this theory to be untrue
— Robert Wilseny
History is the autobiography of a madman
— Alexander Herzen
Every action in our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity
— Edwin Hubbel Chapin
I don't have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.
— Noam Chomsky
There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life fully, entirely, completely, or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands
— Oscar Wilde
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again
— Etienne de Grellet
For the man who thinks for himself becomes acquainted with the authorities for his opinions only after he has acquired them and merely as confirmation of them, while the book philosopher starts with his authorities, in that he constructs his opinions by collecting together the opinions of others: his mind then compares with that of the former as an automon compares with a living man