quotes from classic

Raise a million filters and the rain will not be clean, until the longing for it be refined in deep confession. And still we hear, If only this nation had a soul, or, Let us change the way we trade, or, Let us be proud of our region.

more quotes from Leonard Cohen

I have nothing against the Queen of England. Even in my heart I never resented her for not being Jackie Kennedy. She is, to my mind, a very gallant lady, victimized by whoever it is who designs the tops of her uniforms.

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Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.

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Innocence of heart and violence of feeling are necessary in any kind of superior achievement: The arts cannot exist without them.

more quotes from Louise Bogan

Your work is carved out of agony as a statue is carved out of marble.

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She is not fair to outward view As many maidens be; Her loveliness I never knew Until she smiled on me; Oh! then I saw her eye was bright, A well of love, a spring of light.

more quotes from Hartley Coleridge

Doubt is the father of invention.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Optimism: The doctrine that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong... It is hereditary, but fortunately not contagious.

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Pray, v.: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.

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Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.

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Mayonnaise: One of the sauces which serve the French in place of a state religion.

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Perseverance - a lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.

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Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

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Revolution, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.

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Cabbage: a familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head.

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An egotist is a person of low taste-more interested in himself than in me.

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Consult: To seek approval for a course of action already decided upon.

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History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.

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Philosophy: A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.

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Admiration, n. Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.

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