Chan in "On A Clear Day"

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

Theresa Cheung

Happy people generally know what they want and feel they are moving in the direction of getting it. That's what makes them happy.

from Chocolate Principles to Live By, p. 48

Harold McGee

A soft ganache is made with approximately equal weights of cream and chocolate. To make ganache, the cream is scalded and the chocolate melted into it to form a complex combination of an emulsion and a suspension. The continuous phase of this mixture, the portion that permeates it, is a syrup made from the cream's water and the chocolate's sugar.

from On Food and Cooking, p. 707

Yvonne Ruperti

I melted a standard ganache mixture of 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate and 2 tablespoons heavy cream (plus 1 tablespoon of confectioners' sugar for an extra hint of sweetness and 2 tablespoons of cream), let the mixture cool until it firmed enough to scoop, and then spooned a teaspoon of it onto the cupcakes before baking. As the cupcakes baked, the ganache gently sank into the batter. As I bit into the rich cake and its trufflelike center gushed slightly, I knew I'd hit chocolate nirvana.

--from "Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes," Cooks Illustrated, May 2010 (emphasis added)

30 Rock

Jack: You're a lion. Take what's yours.

30 Rock

Kenneth: [on coffee] I love how it makes me feel. It's like my heart is trying to hug my brain!

Dan Simmons

I am a city man, Dear Reader. Such exertions are not in my physical vocabulary.

Csikszentmihalyi

Attention is like energy, in that without it, no work can be done, and in doing work, it is dissipated. We create ourselves by how we invest this energy. Memories, thoughts, and feelings are all shaped by how we use it. And it is an energy under our control, to do with as we please. Hence, attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience.

from Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Unknown

Religious people go to church to pray that they won’t go to hell. Spiritual people go to church because they have already been to hell, and pray that they never go back.

Mae West

When women go wrong, men go right after them.

Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.

A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.

I believe that it's better to be looked over than it is to be overlooked.

I didn't discover curves; I only uncovered them.

The curve is more powerful than the sword.

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.

I've been in more laps than a napkin.

Save a boyfriend for a rainy day - and another, in case it doesn't rain.

A hard man is good to find.

To err is human, but it feels divine.

When I'm good I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.

Good sex is like good Bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.

Mulla Nasrudin

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

B.C. Forbes

Better to be occasionally cheated than perpetually suspicious.

Andre Gide

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

Florence Scovel Shinn

One's ships come in over a calm sea.

Florence Scovel Shinn

Affirmation:
"Thy will be done this day! Today is a day of completion; I give thanks for this perfect day, miracle shall follow miracle and wonders shall never cease."