"Freedom is the right to choose; the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice and the exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing."
Archibald MacLeish
"Sometimes actions can seem fruitless. That's when it helps to consider the glacier, a pile of snowflakes that can move a mountain."
Rick Bass
"It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts ... For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it."
Patrick Henry
"Favorite pastime of man is fooling himself."
Charlie Chan
"Sometimes you have to look reality in the eye and deny it."
Garrison Keillor