There are silences that mean so much as there are words that mean nothing. ( En )

Il y a des silences qui en disent long comme il y a des paroles qui ne signifient rien. ( Fr )

- Édith Piaf, French singer and songwriter (1915-1963)

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference. 

- Robert Fulghum, author (b. 4 Jun 1937)

Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. 

- Hal Clement, science fiction author (30 May 1922-2003)

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it. 

- Margaret Fuller, author (23 May 1810-1850)

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.

- J.M. Barrie, novelist and playwright (9 May 1860-1937)

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. 

- Horace Mann, educational reformer (4 May 1796-1859)

A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes there is no virtue but on his own side. 

- Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1 May 1672-1719)

I hold that gentleman to be the best-dressed whose dress no one observes. 

- Anthony Trollope, novelist (24 Apr 1815-1882)

If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages.

- Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), author (17 Apr 1885-1962)

Bad weather always looks worse through a window. 

- Tom Lehrer, singer-songwriter and mathematician (b. 9 Apr 1928)

Then there are those we come across, whom we barely know, who offer you a word, a sentence, give you minute, a half hour, and change the course of your life.

- Victor Hugo, French poet and novelist (1802-1885)

Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking. 

- Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (6 Apr 1741-1794)

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him. 

- Booker T. Washington, reformer, educator, and author (5 Apr 1856-1915)

Ne perds jamais espoir, lorsque le soleil se couche, les étoiles apparaissent. ( Fr )

Never lose hope, when the sun sets, stars come into sight. ( En )

- Anonymous

History is a novel whose author is the people. 

- Alfred de Vigny, poet, playwright, and novelist (27 Mar 1797-1863)

Evidence is the only good reason to believe anything. 

-Richard Dawkins, biologist and author (b. 26 Mar 1941)