Great Throughts Treasury

"The fact is, parents and schools and cultures can and do shape people. The most important influence in my life, outside of my family, was my high school journalism teacher, Hattie M. Steinberg. She pounded the fundamentals of journalism into her students -- not simply how to write a lead or accurately transcribe a quote but, more important, how to comport yourself in a professional way. She was nearing sixty at the time I had her as my teacher and high school newspaper adviser in the late 1960s. She was the polar opposite of cool, but we hung around her classroom like it was the malt shop and she was Wolfman Jack. None of us could have articulated it then, but it was because we enjoyed being harangued by her, disciplined by her, and taught by her. She was a woman of clarity and principles in an age of uncertainty. I sit up straight just thinking about her!" - Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

"There is no future in vanilla for most companies in a flat world. A lot of vanilla making in software and other areas is going to shift to open-source communities." - Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

"Individual societies begin in harmonious adaptation to the environment and, like individuals, quickly get trapped into nonadaptive, artificial, repetitive sequences. When the individual's behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and it is time for him to die and be reborn. Time to "drop out," "turn on," and "tune in."" - Timothy Leary, fully Timothy Francis Leary

"Now, to appease his conscience when he did the balance of a long life, he had taken this strange journey and was home to a woman with such expectations. The outer walls were the color of ash cherchevetata windows and balcony railings were painted in two different colors - lighter and darker shade of gray. When discrete scenery around the double door were completed, the block shone with dazzling beauty. Most striking feature of the building, which at the insistence of Pavel Pavlovich Antipov was built in the style ar nuvo9, although it was no longer in vogue was that floors were completely different. The apartments on the ground floor, as if to compensate for the lack of balconies were much larger windows than others. As for the balcony, and they were different on each floor. terrace on the second floor were heavily exported forward in graceful semicircle, and those on the third floor were more retracted so that one could easily sit without being visible from the outside. Balcony on the fourth floor were like those of the second, except that instead of metal railings had curb decorated with embossed flowers, and at both ends were attached marble pots, in which you can grow plants. differences were so striking that one wondered Yet if the residents of these apartments they live in the same place. reliefs on the front façade to balance between decoration windows on the first and second floor, very eye-catching. Here in the circle was painted peacock with a small head and a huge body. His five items, two right, two left and one right on the head sticking out of different countries. One pointed toward the sky, and the other - the four cardinal directions. At the end of each feather was painted a large eye, beautifully finished with subtle touches that resemble eyelashes. In complete contrast, the head of the peacock was brought down. Directly below his feet in a faint oval frame was inscribed the initials of the spouses. - Elif Shafak , The Flea Palace" - Elif Safak

"As I got older, I discovered that nothing within me cried out for a baby. My womb did not seem to have come equipped with that famously ticking clock. Unlike so many of my friends, I did not ache with longing whenever I saw an infant. (Though I did ache with longing, it is true, whenever I saw a good used-book shop)" - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing." - Ezra Taft Benson

"Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers." - Gustave Flaubert

"One who speaks fair words feeds you with an empty spoon." - Italian Proverbs

"One who wants to keep their yard tidy does not reserve a plot for the weeds." - Italian Proverbs

"Speak well of your friend; of your enemy neither well nor ill." - Italian Proverbs

"The sick man sleeps when the debtor cannot." - Italian Proverbs

"The soldier is well paid for doing mischief." - Italian Proverbs

"The joy is about enabling other people's stories to be heard at the same time." - Itay Talgam

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil..." - J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

"And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air." - J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

"Beautiful she is, sir! Lovely! Sometimes Luke a great tree in flower, sometimes like a white daffadowdilly, small and slender like. Hard as di'monds, soft as moonlight. Warm as sunlight, cold as frost in the stars. Proud and far-off as a snow-mountain, and as merry as any lass I ever saw with daisies in her hair in springtime." - J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

"But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them." - J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien