Affliction is the wholesome soil of virtue, where patience, honor, sweet humility, and calm fortitude, take root and strongly flourish.

The wailing owl screams solitary to the mournful moon.

O grant me, Heaven, a middle state, Neither too humble nor too great; More than enough, for nature's ends, With something left to treat my friends.

I courted fame but as a spur to brave and honest deeds; who despises fame will soon renounce the virtues that deserve it.

Uncertainty! fell demon of our fears! The human soul that can support despair, supports not thee.

True valor, on virtue founded strong, meets all events alike.

What proves the hero truly great,Is never, never to despair.

Your journey into the future can only begin when you are able to let go of the past.

He is not a lover who does not love forever.

I haven't always been a patient man...but something tells me you'd be worth the wait.

Stephen Sondheim I am in awe of.

A male scorpion is stabbed to death after mating. In chess, the powerful queen often does the same to the king without giving him the satisfaction of a lover.

When a High Explosive shell bursts in fifteen feet and does you no damage, you can bet your sweet life you bear a charmed life and no mistake.

I never see the dawn that I don't say to myself perhaps.

The contemporary authors I most admire are Nick Hornby and Jonathan Tropper.

For one country is different from another; its earth is different, as are its stones, wines, bread, meat, and everything that grows and thrives in a specific region.

Be spectacularly great at what you do. Wear your passion on your sleeve and hold your heart in the palm of your hand. And work hard. Really hard.