Jacob Seely

“For countless years I judged there had been no danger of war or solitary violence, no danger from wild beasts, no wasting disease to require strength of constitution, no need of toil. For such a life, what we should call the weak are as well equipped as the strong, are indeed no longer weak. Better equipped indeed they are, for the strong would be fretted by an energy for which there was no outlet.”
― H.G. Wells, The Time Machine

“[In] certain unhealthy trends in the present-day culture…the incurable sufferer is given very little opportunity to be proud of his suffering and to consider it ennobling rather than degrading…[so that] he is not only unhappy, but also ashamed of being unhappy.”
― Edith Weisskopf-Joelson

“A second ago you were stepping into college with your lungs full of fresh air. Today you're an old man."

"Old?" asked Clevinger with surprise. "What are you talking about?...I'm not old."

"You're inches away from death every time you go on a mission. How much older can you be?”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

“If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which…is the great high road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart; and tho’ your cause be naked truth itself . . . you shall no more be able to [reach] him, than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw.”
― Abraham Lincoln