Susan

“The whole course of things being thus entirely changed between us and the ancients, and the moderns wisely sensible of it, we of this age have discovered a shorter, and more prudent method, to become scholars and wits, without the fatigue of reading or of thinking. The most accomplished way of using books at present is two-fold: either first, to serve them as some men do lords, learn their titles exactly, and then brag of their acquaintance. Or secondly, which is indeed the choicer, the profounder, and politer method, to get a thorough insight into the index, by which the whole book is governed and turned, like fishes by the tail. For, to enter the palace of learning at the great gate, requires an expense of time and forms; therefore men of much haste and little ceremony are content to get in by the back door.”
― Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub and Other Satires

“I've never seen any life transformation that didn't begin with the person in question finally getting tired of their own bullshit.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers

“Problem solving is hunting. It's a savage pleasure and we're born to it.”
― Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs