"My short attention span has allowed me a life of diversity in work and place."

“The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic.”

“Is it worth while to observe that there are no Venetian blinds in Venice?”

Source : William Dean Howells (2015). “The Complete Travel Books of William Dean Howells: Travel Memoirs & Reports from Traveling Across Europe (Illustrated): Venetian Life, Italian Journeys, Roman Holidays and Others, Suburban Sketches, Familiar Spanish Travels, A Little Swiss Sojourn, London Films & Seven English Cities”, p.63, e-artnow

“There is no precedent of a civilian population, displaced by a war that their leadership started and lost, claiming a right to return to territory that they failed to conquer.”

“Now I felt the long-forgotten urgency of lovemaking, when it seems one's human selves leave, to be replaced by hungry beasts bolting their food. Gone are the civilized beings who talk of manners and journeys and letters; in their places are two bodies straining to give birth to a burst of inhuman pleasure followed by a great, floating nothingness. An explosion of life followed by death - in this we live, and in this we foreshadow our own sweet deaths.”

“Focusing on the way I look makes me uncomfortable. I try to focus on the way I feel - I know what makes me feel better about myself. Reading my child a story makes me feel great, doing my hair nicely doesn't.”

“All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors.”

“Now where I come from We don't let society Tell us how it's supposed to be Our clothes, our hair We don't care It's all about being there Everybody's going Uptown That's where I wanna be Uptown Set your mind free.”

“I know that in embarking on non-violence I shall be running what might be termed a mad risk. But the victories of truth have never been won without risks.”