How young can you die of old age?

Steven Wright

The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit.

Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens]

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self-respect springs.

Joan Didion

The magnanimous know very well that they who give time, or money, or shelter, to the stranger - so it be done for love, and not for ostentation - do, as it were, put God under obligation to them, so perfect are the compensations of the universe.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Nothing that has ever been thought and said with a clear mind and pure ethical strength is totally in vain; even if it comes from a weak hand and is imperfectly formed, it inspires the ethical spirit to constantly renewed creation.

Stefan Zweig