David

“Nations do not plunge at once into ruin - governments do not change suddenly - the causes which bring about the final blow, are scarcely perceptible in the beginning; but they increase in numbers, and in power; they press harder and harder upon the energies and virtue of a people; and the last steps only are alarmingly hurried and irregular. A republic without industry, economy, and integrity, is Samson shorn of his locks. A luxurious and idle republic! Look at the phrase! - The words were never made to be married together; every body sees it would be death to one of them.”
― Lydia Maria Francis Child, American Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to Those Who are Not Ashamed of Economy

“It isn't that there's no right and wrong here. There's no right.”
― V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River

“People's minds are changed through observation and not through argument.”
― Will Rogers

“That's what literature is. It's the people who went before us, tapping out messages from the past, from beyond the grave, trying to tell us about life and death! Listen to them!”
― Connie Willis, Passage