Alan Watts

In music, one doesn’t make the end of a composition the point of the composition. If that was so, the best conductors would be those who played fastest. And there would be composers who wrote only finales. People go to concerts to hear one crashing chord, ‘cause that’s the end! Same way in dancing; you don’t aim at a particular spot in the room: that’s where you should arrive; the whole point of dancing is the dance.

Nora Ephron

Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.

Marilyn Monroe

I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

Marilyn Monroe

Ever notice how 'What the hell' is always the right answer?

Ian Fleming

Never say "no" to adventures. Always say "yes," otherwise you'll lead a very dull life.

--Commander Pott in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Judith Martin

There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection IS the entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can the food be omitted.

Bill Keller

The shortcomings of social media would not bother me awfully if I did not suspect that Facebook friendship and Twitter chatter are displacing real rapport and real conversation, just as Gutenberg's [printing press] displaced remembering. The things we may be unlearning, tweet by tweet ─ complexity, acuity, patience, wisdom, intimacy ─ are things that matter.

My own anxiety is less about the cerebrum than about the soul, and is best summed up not by a neuroscientist but by a novelist. In Meg Wolitzer's charming new tale, "The Uncoupling," there is a wistful passage about the high-school cohort my daughter is about to join. Wolitzer describes them this way: "The generation that had information, but no context. Butter, but no bread. Craving, but no longing."

from: The New York Times Magazine, The Twitter Trap, May 22, 2011. Bill Keller is the executive editor of The New York Times.

John Waters

Peter Sagal: Can you describe, for people who haven't been lucky enough to see one, what a John Waters movie is, quintessentially?

John Waters: It's a political action against the tyranny of good taste.

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, April 23, 2011

Al Franken

Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.

Brother Cavil

I can't even express these things properly because I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid, limiting, spoken language.

(Battlestar Galactica)

L. Frank Baum

I am convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world are the unusual ones.

(Today is his birthday!)

Katharine Hepburn

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

(Today is her birthday!)

Elvis Presley

I believe the key to happiness is someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to.

Stephen Hawking

...concentrate on things your disability doesn't prevent you doing well, and don't regret the things it interferes with. Don't be disabled in spirit as well as physically.

May 9, 2011 NY Times: Life and the Cosmos, Word by Painstaking Word

Abraham Hicks

Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don't want.

St. Augustine

Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? I am a great depth. The hairs of my head are easier by far to count than my feelings, the movements of my heart.