"Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!"

“For you was I born, for you do I have life, for you will I die, for you am I now dying.”

“(He) was in love with the idea of revolution. Men like that, even when they turn their backs on their party and their comrades, can never let go of the idea: it's the secret god that rules their hearts. It is what makes them come alive; they revel in the danger, the exquisite pain. It is to them what childbirth is to a woman, or war to a mercenary.”

Source : Amitav Ghosh (2014). “The Hungry Tide: A Novel”, p.100, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

“Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion, should be done and may, in fact, in the end, be our greatest contribution to civilization.”

Source : Beyond Belief : Science, Religion, Reason and Survival, November 5, 2006.

“Poetry has roots, but they are sometimes cut off and still poetry is written.”

Source : "Walking with Her Muse: An Interview with Shirley Geok-lin Lim". Contemporary Women's Writing, Volume 8, Issue 2, 1 July 2014, Pages 123 - 135, academic.oup.com. June 22, 2013.

“We have to render Islamist extremism as unattractive as communism has become today.”

Source : Source: www.abc.net.au

“I'm a New Yorker; I've paid my dues.”

“Something is always wanting to incomplete fortune. [Lat., Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei.]”

“Self-indulgence leads only to misery. Nothing great or even worthwhile is ever accomplished without struggle through adversity and self-sacrifice”