Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. – Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, c.1420

Whatever you are, try to be a good one. – William Makepeace Thackeray

Surely a man needs a closed place wherein he may strike root and, like the seed, become. But also he needs the great Milky Way above him and the vast sea spaces, though neither stars nor ocean serve his daily needs. РAntoine de Saint-Exup̩ry, The Wisdom of the Sands, translated from French by St

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. – W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up, 1938