If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the reader! ~William Makepeace Thackeray
#quotes #william-makepeace-thackeray #writing #history #books

My second book, Follow Me Down had some success, got good critical notices, went into a second printing and things like that, but Shiloh was by far the most successful of those first five novels. ~Shelby Foote
#quotes #shelby-foote #writing #books

Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself. ~William Ralph Inge
#quotes #william-ralph-inge #prayer

I like my raps, but I'm never too happy with some of 'em because I feel like they could be better. But every time I hear my flow on that song I wow myself. ~Tyler The Creator
#quotes #tyler-the-creator #music

It's hard to say that my twenties were the most miserable time in my life or that my first wife drove me crazy or that I hated the job that I had. You can say all of those things. But for the most part, people manage to have a good time when they're that age. ~Frank Stella
#quotes #frank-stella #adults #age #life

A little too late, is much too late. ~German Proverb
#proverbs #german-proverbs

The key to ending extreme poverty is to enable the poorest of the poor to get their foot on the ladder of development. The ladder of development hovers overhead, and the poorest of the poor are stuck beneath it. They lack the minimum amount of capital necessary to get a foothold, and therefore need a boost up to the first rung. ~Jeffrey Sachs
#quotes #jeffrey-sachs #money #economy

I want to write the sort the book that my people want to read, even if the market is small. ~Robert Dessaix
#quotes #robert-dessaix #writing #books

Clothes are my drug. I love Camden market, I have so many vintage pieces from there it is unbelievable. Clothes are really important to me, they give me that feeling of happiness. I love being a bit free with it all and not giving myself rules. ~Kaya Scodelario
#quotes #kaya-scodelario #happiness #clothing

True celebration should come from your life, in your life. And true celebration cannot be according to the calendar, that on the first of November you will celebrate. Strange, the whole year you are miserable and on the first of November suddenly you come out of misery, dancing. Either, the misery is false, or the first of November is false; both cannot be true. And once the first of November has gone, you are back in your dark hole, everybody in his misery, everybody in his anxiety. ~Rajneesh
#quotes #rajneesh #happiness

The mind of the polyglot is a very particular thing, and scientists are only beginning to look closely at how acquiring a second language influences learning, behavior and the very structure of the brain itself. ~Jeffrey Kluger
#quotes #jeffrey-kluger #language

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, "What's in it for me?" ~Brian Tracy
#quotes #brian-tracy #helping #opportunity #success

Everything we "know" from above [heaven], we know from down here [earth]. How can you take something like that seriously? ~Steve Stevaert
#quotes #steve-stevaert #heaven #earth

With those people, I'm very far apart, because I believe that government access to communications and stored records is valuable when done under tightly controlled conditions which protect legitimate privacy interests. ~Dorothy Denning
#quotes #dorothy-denning #government #privacy

He was welcome everywhere he went, and was well-aware of his inability to tolerate solitude. He felt no inclination to be alone and avoided it as far as possible; he didn't really want to become any better acquainted with himself. He knew that if he wanted to show his talents to best advantage, he needed to strike sparks off other people to fan the flames of warmth and exuberance in his heart. On his own he was frosty, no use to himself at all, like a match left lying in its box. ~Stefan Zweig
#quotes #stefan-zweig #solitude #people

Every smile makes you a day younger. ~Chinese Proverb
#proverbs #chinese-proverbs #happiness

Language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you; at any time. ~Harold Pinter
#quotes #harold-pinter #art #language

I'm always sort of anticipating life being difficult, but on a basic level, that's sort of on the surface, on a basic level, I'm optimistic in the sense that I think it's all going to be alright in the end. ~Emily Mortimer
#quotes #emily-mortimer #life #optimism #difficulty

I know that military alliances and armament have been the reliance for peace for centuries, but they do not produce peace; and when war comes, as it inevitably does under such conditions, these armaments and alliances but intensify and broaden the conflict. ~Frank B. Kellogg
#quotes #frank-b-kellogg #war #military #peace

The wide world was changing, and she wanted a different place in it. Not just wanted, but felt she deserved. If the world didn't owe her a living, as her mother repeatedly warned her, it owed her a break. She had a strong sense that a better, more exciting, more rewarding life than that which had been the lot of her parents and grandparents was hers by right. In this she was guilty of nothing more serious than the arrogance of youth, from which every generation suffers and by which it distinguishes itself from the preceding one. ~James Robertson
#quotes #james-robertson #world #struggle

Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother. ~Moorish Proverb
#proverbs #moorish-proverbs #mother

Whenever you can, act as a liberator. Freedom, dignity, wealth; these three together constitute the greatest happiness of humanity. If you bequeath all three to your people, their love for you will never die. ~Cyrus the Great
#quotes #cyrus-the-great #humanity #freedom

Every decision you make is a mistake. ~Edward Dahlberg
#quotes #edward-dahlberg #mistakes #decisions

Human lives are hard, even those of health and privilege, and don't make much sense. This is the message of the "Book of Job": Any snappy explanation of suffering you come up with will be horseshit. ~Anne Lamott
#quotes #anne-lamott #suffering #books

All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any reasonable person that the Bible is simply and purely of human invention; of barbarian invention; is to read it. Read it as you would any other book; think of it as you would of any other; get the bandage of reverence from your eyes; drive from your heart the phantom of fear; push from the throne of your brain the cowled form of superstition; then read the Holy Bible, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment, supposed a being of infinite wisdom, goodness and purity, to be the author of such ignorance and of such atrocity. ~Robert Green Ingersoll
#quotes #robert-green-ingersoll #books #religion