She smiled. ...The fragrant breeze drifted up from the sea again. A magician wandered along the beach, but no one needed him.

Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe, and Everything

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.
 
For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.
 
He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.
 
You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,
And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.
 
You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

Dale Wimbrow, The Guy in the Glass

People like you and the golden man aren't romantics. How can you be? You live the stories and know what the stories are like when they are lived, but those of us who don't-we are the ones who dream and aspire!

Eleanor Arnason, Stellar Harvest

      To see a World in a Grain of Sand
      And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, 
      Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
      And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

In the real world, which has tigers in it, this isn't good enough.

David Chapman, Planning for Conjunctive Goals

Today, then, as I have suitably freed my mind from all cares, and have secured for myself an assured leisure in peaceful solitude, I shall at last apply myself earnestly and freely to the general overthrow of all my former opinions.

Rene Descartes

How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it.

Alexandre Dumas fils

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.

Gustave Flabuert

Whereas last year I was forced to confess that we know almost nothing about generics, this year I am pleased to report that we know almost something about them.

John Lawler, Tracking the Generic Toad

Nobody is very likely to consider a doctrine true merely because it makes people happy or virtuous... Happiness and virtue are no arguments. But people like to forget - even sober spirits - that making unhappy and evil are no counterarguments. Something might be true while being harmful and dangerous in the highest degree.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

She soon went into a Concentration, soaring kilometers away from where she'd started,... amazed that this place existed, this virtual space where meanings, before they became words or gestures or expressions, hung like baubles of water sparkling on a spiderweb.

Scott Westerfeld, Fine Prey