America, which has the most glorious present still existing in the world today, hardly stops to enjoy it, in her insatiable appetite for the future.

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.

It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.

By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea.

Men kick friendship around like a football, but it doesn't seem to crack. Women treat it like glass and it goes to pieces.

I feel we are all islands - in a common sea.

A simple enough pleasure, surely, to have breakfast alone with one's husband, but how seldom married people in the midst of life achieve it.

My passport photo is one of the most remarkable photographs I have ever seen- no retouching, no shadows, no flattery-just stark me.

When I cannot write a poem, I bake biscuits and feel just as pleased.

Don't wish me happiness - I don't expect to be happy it's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor - I will need them all.

Have you decided how great you want to be? It’s really up to you. Greatness is a choice.

Evil is a choice one makes, not a natural state of being.

I think that by fearing death, you are actually fearing life because it is a part of life. People are born and people die.

Maybe we are both good people who've done some bad things.

Why, oh why, had Jace picked a fight with a pack of wolves? What had possessed him? Then again, it was Jace. He'd pick a fight with a Mack truck if the urge took him. -Clary, pg.40-

In fact, there are very important writings of Marx which are not even translated into English.

America is great not because it's a team. America is great because it is a nation whose founding documents elevated the rights of the individual.

It is sometimes a mistake to climb. It is always a mistake to never make the attempt.

It does not to dwell on dreams and forget to live, but it is equally foolish to ignore the past – never forget.

Human life without some form of poetry is not human life but animal existence.