“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” Ecclesiastes IX:11

“1. The whole management and direction of human life depends upon the question whether or not there is a God and a future state of human existence. If there is a God, but no future state, God is nothing to us. If there is a future state, but no God, we can form no rational guess about the future state. 2. If there is no God and no future state, reasonable men will regulate their conduct either by inclination or by common utilitarianism. 3. If there is a God and a future state, rational men will regulate their conduct by a wider kind of utilitarianism. 4. By whatever rule they regulate their conduct, no room is left for any rational enthusiasm for the order of ideas hinted at by the phrase ‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity’…” James Fitzjames Stephen in Liberty Equality Fraternity

“It’s not an optical illusion. It just looks like one.” “Top 20 Internet Tag Lines” in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 4 #8 (July/August 2001)

“However mean or inconsiderable the act, there is something in the well doing of it, which has fellowship with the noblest forms of manly virtue...” John Ruskin in The Seven Lamps of Architecture

“If you [historians] have no more to tell us than that one barbarian succeeded another on the banks of the Oxus or Ixartes, what use are you to the public?” Voltaire

“There is no such thing as a gay book on political economy for reading in a hammock.” Stephen Leacock in Social Criticism: The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice and Other Essays

“Go not for every grief to the physician, nor for every quarrel to the lawyer, nor for every thirst to the pot.” George Herbert

“He had made his wish and the wish had not only been granted, it had been stuffed down his throat.” Ian Fleming, Goldfinger