"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up for work."

"U.S. artist Chuck Close" quoted as "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe & Mail August 19, 2008

"I allow that, if no Supreme Ruler exists, wise to form and potent to enforce the moral law, there is no sanction to any contract, virtual or even actual, against the will of prevalent power. On that hypothesis let any set of men be strong enough to set their duties at defiance, and they cease to be duties any longer.”

Edmund Burke An Appeal from the Old to the New Whigs

"It grieves them more to own a bad house than a bad life…"

St. Augustine The City of God (speaking of "evil men")

"it is axiomatic that one cannot have a duty to do something that cannot be done."

George Will in Washington Post August 17, 2003, quoted in Natan Sharansky with Ron Dermer The Case for Democracy

"I want to do 'why to' DVDs instead of 'how to’s'. I think that if you understand why, you’re learning how."

Mike Holmes quoted in TV Guide April 4, 2005

"A professional is a man who can do his job when he doesn’t feel like it; an amateur is one who can’t when he does feel like it."

James Agate, quoted as "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe & Mail Nov. 4, 2005

“Have they [the philosophers] found the cure for our ills? Is it curing man’s presumption to set him up as God’s equal?”

Blaise Pascal Pensées

“the words itched more than they tickled.”

Larry Hill in Maclean’s August 27, 2001