"Democracy has become, unless I mistake, a kind of test or shibboleth, by which we try men and measures; and this is the same as to say that it is merely a word which is powerful with us, and not the wide and true notion of what the word means. But we must define the true import of words, and not be slaves to syllables; for democracy in form is not necessarily people-power in fact, but power perhaps of a few, who cajole the many and so lead and use the people for their own ends."

“The nightmare of materialism, which has turned the life of the universe into an evil, useless game, is not yet past; it holds the awakening soul still in its grip.”

“a poem is like a wine glass in which you can hold up a little bit of reality and taste it.”

“The Pretty Lady's brains were almost entirely in her fingers.”

Source : Eleanor Hallowell Abbott (2012). “The Sick-a-Bed Lady: And Other Tales”, p.129, The Floating Press

“Is it not in the most absolute simplicity that real genius plies its pinions the most wonderfully?”

Source : E. T. A. Hoffmann (2015). “Old and New Church Music (Fantasy and Horror Classics)”, p.12, Read Books Ltd

“I don't feel the need to prove myself by writing the next generational novel.”

“Now it will take a long time to scale biofuels, but I'm the only one in the world forecasting oil dropping in price to $35 a barrel by 2030. I'll put it on the record: Oil will not be able to compete with cellulosic biofuels. If you do it from food, the food will get so expensive you can't make fuel out of it.”

“Praying helps me see perspectives otherwise beyond me.”

“Beneath a free government there is nothing but the intelligence of the people to keep the people's peace. Order must be preserved, not by a military police or regiments of horse-guards, but by the spontaneous concert of a well-informed population, resolved that the rights which have been rescued from despotism shall not be subverted by anarchy.”

Source : Edward Everett (1850). “Orations and speeches on various occasions”, p.609