Quotes

Amartya Sen photo

“the identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute”

Amartya Sen (1933) Indian economist

Source: The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity

“Birthdays could be such a bummer when you were older than the country you lived in.”

Lynsay Sands Canadian writer

Source: A Quick Bite

“People with lost personalities will suffer a great deal more than those with lost virginities.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

William Congreve photo

“Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.”

Act II, scene i. Precedent for Alfred Tennyson's more famous: "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all"
The Way of the World (1700)

Henry Fielding photo

“It is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men good.”

Source: The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

Brandon Sanderson photo

“Better to be the failure who nobly strived than the success who never really had to.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: Firstborn

Robert A. Heinlein photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Marguerite Yourcenar photo
Philip K. Dick photo
Muhammad Ali photo

“I'm retiring because there are more pleasant things to do than beat up people.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

As quoted in Secrets of Power Persuasion for Salespeople (2003) by Roger Dawson , p. 192

Billy Joel photo

“I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

Variant: I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.

Maya Angelou photo

“When trust is lost, traumatized people feel that they belong more to the dead than to the living.”

Judith Lewis Herman (1942) American psychiatrist

Source: Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Fernando Pessoa photo

“Without madness what is man
more than the healthy beast,
corpse adjourned that procreates?”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

Poem "D. Sebastião", verses 8-10
Message
Original: Sem a loucura que é o homem
Mais que a besta sadia,
Cadáver adiado que procria?
Source: Poems of Fernando Pessoa