Notable Quotes |
Indefinite visions of ambition are weak against the ease of doing what is habitual or beguilingly agreeable, and we all know the difficulty of carrying out a resolve when we secretly long that it may be unnecessary. - George Eliot, Middlemarch |
A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you are supposed to do. - Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) |
Whenever we speak, those who listen to us have expectations as to how we shall do so. While we need not confirm these in every respect, we do need to respond to them. . . . In becoming competent at our languages, each of us must find a way, actually a set of ways, to address the expectations that are in some sense the most important materials with which we work.
- James Boyd White. Acts of Hope: Creating Authority |
Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements. - Samuel Johnson |
Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess, and to gain applauses which he cannot keep; -
Samuel Johnson: Rambler #189 |
