My weaknesses are less remarkable than 

all the things I have at one time or another 

imagined were my strengths.

The mistakes I made from weakness 

do not embarrass me nearly so much as those 

I made insisting on my strength.

Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays

James Richardson 

 Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value. 

--Plato

“I’m mercurial, sometimes I want greatness, sometimes just its shadow.”

Roberto Bolaño

The More Loving One

W. H. Auden, 1907 - 1973

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

Whether you like it or not, you are committed to the human endeavor. I cannot ally myself with such a purely negative goal as avoidance of suffering. Suffering is a chance you take by the fact of being alive.

— William S. Burroughs, Letters to Allen Ginsberg

"The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication."

— Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards!