I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism have brought me to my ideas. – Albert Einstein
Since every man who lives is born to die, and none can boast sincere felicity, with equal mind, what happens, let us bear, nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our care. – John Dryden
The stability and peace which seemed to be so firmly established by the brilliant monarchy of Francis I vanished with the terrible outbreak of the Wars of Religion. – Lytton Strachey
A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself. – E.M. Forster, Two Cheers for Democracy, 1951
