"Surely 't is better, when summer is over To die when all fair things are fading away."

“Most students of literature can pick apart a metaphor or spot an ethnic stereotype, but not many of them can say things like: 'The poem's sardonic tone is curiously at odds with its plodding syntax.”

“A good cook is not necessarily a good woman with an even temper. Some allowance should be made for artistic temperament.”

“Some kind of affirmative action is important in a democracy and for economic competitiveness and national security. The Army was the first to realize that you had to have desegregation of a military to have it working properly.”

“Mozart didn't need a scheme for his music. He played and sang with the heavenly lightness of a child.”

“Little fish risking everything for a piece of godhood...and not knowing heaven from hell, even when they find it.”

Source : Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.93, Macmillan

“Love, the life-giving garden of this world.”

“To those of you who seek lost objects of history, I wish you the best of luck. They're out there, and they're whispering.”

Source : Twitter post from Jun 25, 2012

“I hope that I will be the last victim in China's long record of treating words as crimes.”

Source : "Liu Xiaobo: 'No Enemies, No Hatred,' Only Courage". "All Things Considered", www.npr.org. February 16, 2012.