Melissa > Melissa's Quotes

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
― Mark Twain

“Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”
― Mark Twain

“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

“Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. ”
― Alexander Solzhenitsyn

“Pride grows in the human heart like lard on a pig.”
― Alexander Solzhenitsyn

“The more you move, the stronger you'll grow, not like a tree that can be killed if you uproot it.”
― Ha Jin

“Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.”
― Paul Theroux

“It's not that I don't like people. It's just that when I'm in the company of others - even my nearest and dearest - there always comes a moment when I'd rather be reading a book.”
― Maureen Corrigan, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books

“I would like to see anyone, prophet, king or God, convince a thousand cats to do the same thing at the same time.”
― Neil Gaiman

“Distance lends enchantment to the view.”
― Mark Twain

“If the Creator should take the line that I am born to work and not to sleep, I would agree that I am indeed born to work but I would also make the unanswerable point that I cannot work unless I also rest.”
― Natsume Sōseki, I Am a Cat