— Wisława Szymborska Polish writer 1923 - 2012
"Still Life with a Balloon"
— Sherwood Anderson writer 1876 - 1941
Context: We have not approached the time when we may speak to each other, but in the mornings sometimes I have heard, echoing far off, the sound of a trumpet. It is apparent that nations cannot exist for us. They are the playthings of children, such toys as children break from boredom and weariness. The branch of a tree is my country. My freedom sleeps in a mulberry bush. My country is in the shivering legs of a little lost dog.
A New Testament (1927)
— George MacDonald Scottish journalist, novelist 1824 - 1905
Context: !-- After a few days, Willie got tired of [the water-wheel] — and no blame to him, for it was no earthly use beyond amusement, and that which can only amuse can never amuse long. --> I think the reason children get tired of their toys so soon is just that it is against human nature to be really interested in what is of no use. If you say that a beautiful thing is always interesting, I answer, that a beautiful thing is of the highest use. Is not the diamond that flashes all its colours into the heart of a poet as useful as the diamond with which the glazier divides the sheets of glass into panes for our windows?
The History of Gutta Percha Willie, the Working Genius (1873)
— Lawton Chiles Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging 1930 - 1998
State of the State address https://www.c-span.org/video/?79585-1/florida-state-state-address&start=2432 (4 March 1997)
— José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero Former Prime Minister of Spain 1960
Interview with "Time" Magazine, September 22th, 2004
— Ramakrishna Indian mystic and religious preacher 1836 - 1886
p. 149
— St. Vincent (musician) American singer-songwriter 1982
Context: The drug issue is hard to separate from a class issue, an education issue, a wonky foreign policy issue, and a race issue. What I do know is, be it caffeine, alcohol, cocaine, or adrenaline, let's face it: people like to get high. From Starbucks to Budweiser to your own brain, everybody's a pusher these days. If I could substitute another drug to be consumed in the country as much as alcohol is, it would be helium from children's birthday party balloons. Try not laughing when someone sounds like a chipmunk!
"John Vanderslice interviews St. Vincent (on the road)" in Brooklyn Vegan (24 April 2007) http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2007/04/john_vanderslic_5.html
— Shirley Jackson novelist, short story writer 1916 - 1965
Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Harcraft's Twentieth Century Authors (1954)
— Jacque Fresco American futurist and self-described social engineer 1916 - 2017
— Thomas Fuller (writer) British physician, preacher, and intellectual 1654 - 1734
— A. P. J. Abdul Kalam 11th President of India, scientist and science administrator 1931 - 2015
p. 90.
— Oliver Goldsmith Irish physician and writer 1728 - 1774
— Jack McDevitt American novelist, Short story writer 1935
Chapter 9 (p. 96)
— Joan of Arc French folk heroine and Roman Catholic saint 1412 - 1431
Context: The light comes at the same time as the Voice. … I will not tell you all; I have not leave; my oath does not touch on that. My Voice is good and to be honored. I am not bound to answer you about it. I request that the points on which I do not now answer may be given me in writing. … You shall not know yet. There is a saying among children, that 'Sometimes one is hanged for speaking the truth.'" [She is asked : Do you know if you are in the grace of God? ] If I am not, may God place me there; if I am, may God so keep me. I should be the saddest in all the world if I knew that I were not in the grace of God. But if I were in a state of sin, do you think the Voice would come to me? I would that every one could hear the Voice as I hear it.
Third public examination (24 February 1431) http://www.stjoan-center.com/Trials/sec03.html; part of this testimony has sometimes been paraphrased: If I am not in the state of grace, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.
