"I would like to be able to admire a man's opinions as I would his dog - without being expected to take it home with me."

“Washington was a typical American. Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country - bigger than all the Presidents together. We are still too near to his greatness,' (Leo) Tolstoy (in 1908) concluded, 'but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.' (748)”

“Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder.”

“I have to live with my decisions, whether you like them or not.”

“What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and no involvement in the decision-making.”

Source : Laurence Steinberg (2011). “You and Your Adolescent, New and Revised edition: The Essential Guide for Ages 10-25”, p.19, Simon and Schuster

“I never trust songwriters who talk about what their song is about.”

“I'm convinced people are bored of generic travel”

“He [William Harvey] bid me to goe to the Fountain-head, and read Aristotle, Cicero, Avicenna, and did call the Neoteriques shitt-breeches.”

Source : John Aubrey (1957). “Brief lives”

“I love Chinese food, like steamed dim sum, and I can have noodles morning, noon and night, hot or cold. I like food that's very simple on the digestive system - I tend to keep it light. I love Japanese food too - sushi, sashimi and miso soup.”

Source : "What's in your basket?". Interview with John Briffa, www.theguardian.com. March 29, 2008.