The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish. —Robert Louis Stevenson

Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God. —Arnold Toynbee

Solitude is such a potential thing. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no other condition . . . —Amelia E. Barr

Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is. —Maxim Gorky

The stormy March has come at last,
With wind, and cloud, and changing skies;
I hear the rushing of the blast,
That through the snowy valley flies.
—William Cullen Bryant

Never wear anything that panics the cat. —P J O'Rourke

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it. —Flannery O'Connor

The greatest discovery is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind. —William James

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come. —Joseph Campbell

The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion. —Doris Lessing

Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart. —Phyllis McGinley

I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn't write anything without hope in it. —Oscar Hammerstein II

As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along. —Eleanor Roosevelt

Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a 'universal' without patriotism, without home, who has found his people everywhere. —Chaim Potok

The Rune of St. Patrick

At Tara today in this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And fire with all the strength it hath,
And lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.

If you made a list of the reasons why any couple got married, and another list of the reasons for their divorce, you'd have...a lot of overlapping. —Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other. —Dr. Laurence J. Peter

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. —William Orville Douglas

Remember one thing about democracy. We can have anything we want and at the same time, we always end up with exactly what we deserve. —Edward Albee

It is no little wisdom for you to keep yourself in silence and in good peace when evil words are spoken to you, and to turn your heart to God and not to be troubled with the judgment of others. —Thomas a Kempis

If I knew what I was so worried about, I wouldn't worry so much. —Unknown

Worry not about the possible troubles of the future; for if they come, you are but anticipating and adding to their weight; and if they do not come, your worry is useless; and in either case it is weak and in vain, and a distrust of God's providence. —Hugh Blair

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. —Gene Fowler

Much wisdom often goes with fewest words. —Sophocles

Most people are quite happy to suffer in silence, if they are sure everybody knows they are doing it. —Unknown

Were I to await perfection, my book would never be finished. —Chinese Proverb

There are two kinds of people in the world—givers and takers. The takers eat better. The givers sleep better. —probably Danny Thomas, indefinite attribution

The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike. —Ralph Ellison