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

Official education was telling people almost nothing of the nature of all those things on the seashores, and in the redwood forests, in the deserts and in the plains. ~Gregory Bateson
#quotes #gregory-bateson #nature #education

Never tell anyone to go to hell unless you can make 'em go. ~William J. Clinton
#quotes #william-j-clinton

Grade school was perilous. I can see how I must have worried them. I was the kind of kid who, for no apparent reason, wept piteously or threw up on myself. On an especially scary day, I sometimes did both. ~Sue Grafton
#quotes #sue-grafton #children #schooling

Reality is not meant to be only creedal, though the creeds are important. Reality is to be experienced, and experienced on the basis of a restored relationship with God through that finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. ~Francis Schaeffer
#quotes #francis-schaeffer #christianity

Every young girl wants to be a princess. Then, when you find a real-life one, it's very easy to imagine yourself in that role. ~Lauren Willig
#quotes #lauren-willig #princess

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise. ~Charles de Secondat
#quotes #charles-de-secondat #wisdom #success

In 1982 when I showed up, the average age of the drivers in the series was something like 40, 41. The crowds were small. There was not much prize money. The competition wasn't very tight. ~Bobby Rahal
#quotes #bobby-rahal #competition

I think I'm doing some good. Obviously, I don't need any more money. ~Joe Jamail
#quotes #joe-jamail #money

Hopeful thinking can get you out of your fear zone and into your appreciation zone. ~Martha Nibley Beck
#quotes #martha-nibley-beck #thinking #optimism #appreciation #hope

If you are strangers to prayer you are strangers to power. ~Billy Sunday
#quotes #billy-sunday #prayer

I feel lucky that I had my children late. Not that I would advise it in any shape or form. But I know friends who had children when they were young, struggled with feeling trapped. I can honestly say I have never once resented the fact that I could not go out because of my kids. ~Mariella Frostrup
#quotes #mariella-frostrup #children #family

But that's typical of me. "This is going to end in tears," I tell myself every time I balance a cup of coffee on the upholstered arm of the chair I'm sitting on. And then, lo and behold, the cup topples and even before it lands, I tell myself, "Told me so!" Not to spell out, or spill out, one of the metaphors of my life, but I always do the stupid thing and then I do it again. I never learn. ~Patricia Marx
#quotes #patricia-marx #weeping #stupidity

If you can compete, you are going to compete. ~Earl Lloyd
#quotes #earl-lloyd #competition

Lead me, Zeus, and you, Fate, wherever you have assigned me. I shall follow without hesitation; but even if I am disobedient and do not wish to, I shall follow no less surely. ~Cleanthes
#quotes #cleanthes #zeus #fate

Romania is an interesting place because I think it has been abused, on so many different levels. ~Kiefer Sutherland
#quotes #kiefer-sutherland #places #romania

Irony: While we increasingly hold people more responsible if they drink and drive, we hold women less responsible if they drink and have sex. ~Warren Farrell
#quotes #warren-farrell #relationship #alcohol

What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul. ~Jewish Proverb
#proverbs #jewish-proverbs #weeping

It is better to conceal one's knowledge than to reveal one's ignorance. ~Spanish Proverb
#proverbs #spanish-proverbs #knowledge #speaking

Now, being in Africa, I was hungry for more of it, the changes of the seasons, the rains with no need to travel, the discomforts that you paid to make it real, the names of the trees, of the small animals, and all the birds, to know the language and have time to be in it and to move slowly. ~Ernest Hemingway
#quotes #ernest-hemingway #africa #travel

What bothers most critics of my work is the goofiness. One reviewer said I need to make up my mind if want to be funny or serious. My response is that I will make up my mind when God does, because life is a commingling of the sacred and the profane, good and evil. To try and separate them is fallacy. ~Tom Robbins
#quotes #tom-robbins #critic #writing

I remember being fascinated by ants and wasps and other bugs when I was a kid. I'd set out a Coke can and stand back 20 feet and use my telescope to watch wasps land on it. ~Paul McEuen
#quotes #paul-mceuen #childhood

Certainly my parents were a huge influence. They always expected the most out of all of us. And expected us to do our very best. I'm thankful to them for allowing me to do what I wanted to do. ~Laurel Clark
#quotes #laurel-clark #parents #influence #thankfulness

As I've written before, China's ability to be the assembly line to the world wasn't where its role in the global economy ended; it was where it began. An ability to make products cheaper than anywhere else gave way to an ability to make high end products more nimbly than anywhere else. ~Sarah Lacy
#quotes #sarah-lacy #economy #china

For him and his brother, he now knew, that music was real. Because all you had to do, really, was be willing to use your imagination. And listen. ~Holly Goldberg Sloan
#quotes #holly-goldberg-sloan #imagination #music