“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it”

“A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

“There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there, too. But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath. Then He must be dug out again.”

Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) Jewish diarist

“Inside the peach, there is a stone.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

“You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

“Communism is all about breaking down nationalism, about uniting workers around the world, and North Korea has always been about the opposite, it’s been about racial purity and pride, so remember North Korea was isolated even inside the old east-block, even inside the Soviet block.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

“The task of the artist at any time is uncompromisingly simple – to discover what has not yet been done, and to do it.”

Craig Raine (1944) Poet

“Statues to great men are made of the stones thrown at them in their lifetime.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

“When a new building block is discovered, the result is usually a range of innovations.”

John H. Holland (1929–2015) US university professor

“The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher