Laugh

Precious few of our religious leaders laugh. They shout. God is not an exclamation point, though.
--Eric Weiner

Perfect

We all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits. Indeed we seem to have no other criterion of truth and reason than the type and kind of opinions and customs current in the land where we live. There we always see the perfect religion, the perfect political system, the perfect and most accomplished way of doing everything.
--Michel de Montaigne

Fashion

The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women's fashion. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It's complete gibberish. It's insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?
--Larry Ellison (chairman, Oracle)

Poetry

Prose is a house, poetry a man in flames running quite fast through it.
--Anne Carson

Beautiful

The moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be.
--Alain de Botton

Heroism

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
--Arthur Ashe

Manners

I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners, I don’t like them myself. They are pretty bad. I grieve over them on long winter evenings.
—William Faulkner (The Big Sleep, spoken by Philip Marlowe/Humphrey Bogart)

Pretext

Much of the world's elite understand exactly what they're doing: i.e., use the economic catastrophe they themselves created as a pretext to kill the welfare state they've despised for 65 years. Nonetheless, a significant chunk of them actually believe they're doing the right thing for everyone.
--Jonathan Schwarz

Horror

We humans can't truly embrace every horror, or else we'd be submerged in a nanosecond by the unspeakable suffering that this world offers.
--Laura Pritchett

Invisible

Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.
--George Carlin

New Technologies

The impact of new technologies is invariably misjudged because we measure the future with yardsticks from the past.
--Stephen Baker

Decently

What makes life worth living are the saints. They can be longtime friends or someone I meet on a street. They find a way to behave decently in an indecent society.
--Kurt Vonnegut

Information

Neither information nor a drug fix ever gives any happiness when you have it, but will make you miserable when you don't.
--Michel Serres

Enthusiasm

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.
--Benjamin Disraeli

At Heart

Because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
--Anne Frank

Written Inside

The elements that compose us are derived from the birth of stars and the explosion of supernovae. These events are only the beginning of our deep connections to the universe. Written inside of us is the birth of the solar system and workings of the planet itself.
--Neil Shubin

Standard

If you get nothing else out of this, just remember one thing: There is nothing "standard." Everything is negotiable. If they tell you it's not, go find somebody else.
--Stanley Snadowsky

Believe

I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.
--Isaac Asimov

Its Time

You can't pull a butterfly out of its cocoon; it has to be its time.
--Dr. John Woodall

Work

Even when I do not feel like work, I sit down to it just the same. I cannot wait for inspiration.
--Igor Stravinsky