"It is not every calamity that is a curse, and early adversity is often a blessing. Surmounted difficulties not only teach, but hearten us in our future struggles."

“The image-managers encourage the individual to fashion himself into a smooth coin, negotiable in any market.”

“Job's forthright indictment of the injustice of this world is surely right. The ways of the world are weird and much more unpredictable than either scientists or theologians generally make things look.”

“We accept there's an emotional aspect to life. But we're not very developed in our ways of understanding it.”

Source : "Britain's intellectuals: leading thinkers have their say". www.theguardian.com. May 7, 2011.

“...no man can cause more grief than the one clinging blindly to the vices of his ancesters.”

Source : "Intruder in the Dust".

“I may sink, but I'll be damned if I strike!”

Source : Said during the Battle of Flamborough Head, September 23, 1779.

“My own sense is that fiction is inching its way over to join poetry on the cultural margin. It's an area of passionate concern for me, as for many people, but it's nowhere near as central to the culture as it used to be.”

“They said playing basketball would kill me. Well, not playing basketball was killing me.”

“I was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and no one had ever taught anybody that young, back in those days.”