Desiderius Erasmus

“You must acquire the best knowledge first, and without delay; it is the height of madness to learn what you will later have to unlearn”. –Desiderius Erasmus

Ernest Bramah

“A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment”. –Ernest Bramah

Charles Reade

“The fortunate man is he who, born poor, or nobody, works gradually up to wealth and consideration, and, having got them, dies before he finds they were not worth so much trouble”. –Charles Reade

John Updike

“Like water, blood must run or grow scum”. –John Updike

Elizabeth Gaskell

“People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people’s minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues”. –Elizabeth Gaskell

Friedrich Klopstock

“He who has an opinion of his own, but depends upon the opinion and taste of others, is a slave”. –Friedrich Klopstock

Kabir

“Admire the diamond that can bear the hits of a hammer. Many deceptive prophets, when critically examined, turn out to be false”. –Kabir

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

“The true value of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth”. –Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

George Moore

“The lot of critics is to be remembered by what they failed to understand”. –George Moore

Marcel Proust

“We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, and effort which no one can spare us”. –Marcel Proust

Roger Zelazny

“The universe did not invent justice. Man did. Unfortunately, man must reside in the universe”. –Roger Zelazny

Robert Southey

“Yet leaving here a name, I trust, That will not perish in the dust”. –Robert Southey

Geoffrey Chaucer

“For thogh we slepe, or wake, or rome, or ryde, Ay fleeth the tyme; it nyl no man abyde”. –Geoffrey Chaucer

Thomas Carlyle

“Democracy is, by the nature of it, a self-canceling business; and it gives in the long run a net result of zero”. –Thomas Carlyle

Osbert Sitwell

“Hell has a climate, but no situation. It lies in the spirit, and not in space”. –Osbert Sitwell

T.S. Eliot

“O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and impure heart: for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”. –T.S. Eliot

William Shakespeare

“Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well”. –William Shakespeare

Mark Twain

“In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot”. –Mark Twain