"The graveyards are full of indispensable men." 

-- Charles de Gaulle

"What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music."

-- Soren Kierkegaard

"He observed that the people drinking alcohol would just get drunk and sing and be jolly, whereas the people drinking coffee remained sober and plotted against the government."

-- Stewart Allen

"Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."

-- Soren Kierkegaard

"Papa used to tell me as a little child,
the only reason we're here is to make 'em smile." 

-- Wendy Waldman, Vaudeville Man

“The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.” 

-- Blaise Pascal

"When I was young, I believed in three things: Marxism, the redemptive power of cinema, and dynamite. Now I just believe in dynamite."

-- Sergio Leone, Italian film director

"A principle isn't a principle until it costs you something."

-- Bill Bernbach

"In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil. Evil doesn't drive out good. But the energetic displaces the passive."

-- Bill Bernbach

"Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business."

 

-- Tom Robbins

"Herr, lehre uns Bedenken, dass wir alle einmal sterben müssen, auf das wir im Leben klug werden."

"Lord, teach us to understand we all have to die sometime, that we become wiser in our lives." 

-- Psalm 90:12

"Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before."  

-- Edith Wharton

"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."

 

-- H.L. Mencken

“We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns.” 

-- Tom Waits

"No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up." 

-- Lily Tomlin

"Death is very likely the best invention of life. All pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important." 

 

-- Steve Jobs

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” 

  -- Noam Chomsky

"The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum."  

-- Havelock Ellis

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is stoned to death."

 

-- Joan D. Vinge

“What is the New Testament? A handbook for those who are to be sacrificed.”

--Soren Kierkegaard