Ring Lardner

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.

Being both soft and strong is a combination very few have mastered.

It is the mind that makes good or ill. That which makes us happy or sad; rich or poor.

I only ask to be free, the butterflies are free.

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strength. When you go through hardship and decide not to surrender, that is strength.

Maybe in the 90s or possibly in the next century people will look upon the 80s as the age of masturbation, when it was taken to the limit; that might be all that’s going on right now in a big way.

All systems either of preference or of restraint … completely taken away, the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord. Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest in his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man.

Insight emerges out of silence.

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

Leaders inspire. They aren’t assigned leadership. They command it.

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.