"The only gracious way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you can’t ignore it, top it; if you can’t top it, laugh at it; if you can’t laugh at it, it’s probably deserved."

Russell Lynes, in "Thought du jour" in Globe and Mail July 26, 2001

"Of what use is a dream if not a blueprint for bold action?"

Bruce Wayne in the original 1966 Batman movie

"It’s okay to say what you think as long as you have thought."

Brent Dyment (an "honourable mention" in a readers’ "Thought du Jour" contest in Globe and Mail Nov. 29 2002)

"Now there’s a man with an open mind - you can feel the breeze from here!"

Groucho Marx

“Dreadful as it was, I count it a mercy that the climax was reached so quickly.... It was upon us before we realized it. There is no incidental music to the dramas of real life."

Dr. Petrie’s internal monologue in Sax Rohmer The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu 

"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it is unfamiliar territory.”

Paul Fix

"Some people have such open minds that their brains fall out."

Flannery O'Connor (according to various sources)

"the Furies of conscience do not wait upon our assumptions. One who admits the Furies but denies the God who appointed them – who supposes that there can be a law without a lawgiver – must suppose that forgiveness is both necessary and impossible. That which is not personal cannot forgive; morality 'by itself' has a heart of rock."

J. Budziszewski in First Things June/July 2002