"Most people spend more time planning a one-week vacation than they spend planning their life."

“The proof that man is the noblest of all creatures is that no other creature has ever denied it.”

“It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought-that is to be educated.”

Source : John Steinbeck (1963). “The short novels of John Steinbeck: Tortilla Flat, The red pony, Of mice and men, The moon is down, Cannery Row, The pearl”

“Dogma is invariably wrong, as knowledge is always in a state of transition.”

“I am an American citizen born in Kuwait of Egyptian parents. I grew up in Great Britain, Malaysia, and Egypt and have lived in the United States since 1965, when I was seventeen.”

“And I think in your 40s, you land a little bit, physically and mentally, you arrive at a place where you feel you've learned some stuff. Having children at that point meant I had something very useful to do for the next 20 years.”

Source : "Robin Hood star Mark Strong: 'Real knights would have needed tea breaks'". Interview with Elizabeth Day, www.theguardian.com. May 8, 2010.

“The most lasting and universal consequence of the French revolution is the metric system”

Source : Eric J. Hobsbawm (1994). “Age of extremes: the short twentieth century, 1914-1991”

“Simplicity is the first cousin of contentment.”

“There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl.”