Michelangelo Buonarroti

 "If people only knew how hard I work 

to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem 

so wonderful at all.."

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr. Seuss

 "I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. 

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, 

it's a way of looking at life through the 

wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, 

and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."

Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr. Seuss

Harry Belafonte

 "You can cage the singer but not the song."

Harry Belafonte

Ralph Ellison

 "I am invisible, understand, simply 

because people refuse to see me."

Ralph Ellison

Jack R. Lousma

 "I always tell people I answered an ad in

 the newspaper... right on the front page
there was this advertisement or article that was 

saying 'NASA's looking for new astronauts...' "

Jack R. Lousma

Linus Pauling

 "Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of 

the greatest sources of happiness in life."

Linus Pauling

George Frederic Handel

 “Whether I was in my body or out 

of my body as I wrote it I know not. God knows.”

George Frederic Handel

Frederic Chopin

 "Simplicity is the final achievement. 

After one has played a vast quantity of notes 

and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges

 as the crowning reward of art."

Frederic Chopin

Ansel Adams

 "It is horrifying that we have to 

fight our own government to save the environment."
Ansel Adams

Matt Groening

 "Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig 

and then suddenly he turns on you 

with a miniature machine gun."

Matt Groening

Susan B. Anthony

"Cautious, careful people, always 

casting about to preserve their reputations...

can never effect a reform."

Susan B. Anthony

Galileo Galilei

 "In questions of science, the authority of 

a thousand is not worth the humble 

reasoning of a single individual."

Galileo Galilei

Frederick Douglass

 "At a time like this, scorching irony, 

not convincing argument, is needed."

Frederick Douglass

Grant Wood

 "I had to go to France to appreciate Iowa."

Grant Wood

Ossie Davis

 “Any form of art is a form of power; 

it has impact, it can affect change 

it can not only move us, it makes us move.”

Ossie Davis

Alice Walker

 "Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise."

Alice Walker

Jules Verne

 "I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. 

A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud 

without coming through."

Jules Verne

Kurt Vonnegut

 "Be careful what you pretend to be 

because you are what you pretend to be."

Kurt Vonnegut

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Nothing great was ever 

achieved without enthusiasm.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dorothea Tanning

"Keep your eye on your inner world 

and keep away from ads 

and idiots and movie stars, 

except when you need amusement."

Dorothea Tanning

Langston Hughes

 "I tire so of hearing people say, 

let things take their course. Tomorrow is 

another day. I do not need my freedom 

when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread."

Langston Hughes

Jackie Robinson

 "I'm not concerned with your liking 

or disliking me. All I ask is that you 

respect me as a human being."

Jackie Robinson

Franklin D. Roosevelt

 "A conservative is a man with two 

perfectly good legs who, however, 

has never learned how to walk forward."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Lewis Carroll

 "Always speak the truth, 

think before you speak, 

and write it down afterwards."

Lewis Carroll

Angela Davis

 "What this country needs is 

more unemployed politicians."
Angela Davis

Virginia Woolf

 "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman."

Virginia Woolf

Edith Wharton

 "If only we'd stop trying to be happy

we'd have a pretty good time."

Edith Wharton

Edouard Manet

 "There are no lines in nature, 

only areas of colour, one against another."
Edouard Manet

David Lynch

 "But even a bad cup of coffee is 

better than no coffee at all."

David Lynch

Wikipedia

"The Wikipedia blackout is over 

— and you have spoken.
More than 162 million people saw our 

message asking if you could imagine a world

without free knowledge.  You said no. 

You shut down Congress’s switchboards. 

You melted their servers. Your voice 

was loud and strong.  Millions of people have spoken

in defense of a free and open Internet."
Wikipedia

John Perry Barlow

 “The Internet treats censorship as 

a malfunction and routes around it.”
John Perry Barlow

Benjamin Franklin

 “Many people die at twenty five and 

aren't buried until they are seventy five.”
Benjamin Franklin

Martin Luther King, Jr.

 "History will have to record that the 

greatest tragedy of this period of 

social transition was not the strident clamor 

of the bad people, but the 

appalling silence of the good people."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Brian Eno

 "I often work by avoidance."
Brian Eno

Maurice Sendak

 "My work has always been considered inappropriate.

But the ones that I love the ones that I think work 

as works of art and books are inappropriate."
Maurice Sendak

Theodore Roosevelt

  "Far better is it to dare mighty things, 

to win glorious triumphs, 

even though checkered by failure...

than to rank with those poor spirits 

who neither enjoy nor suffer much, 

because they live in a gray twilight 

that knows not victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt

Jello Biafra

 "For every prohibition you create 

you also create an underground."
Jello Biafra

Jean Pierre Blanchard

"...permit me, gentlemen, to advise you 

not to attempt to keep up with me..."

Jean Pierre Blanchard

Alvin Ailey

 "Racism tears down your insides 

so that no matter what you achieve, 

you're not quite up to snuff."
Alvin Ailey

Matt Frewer

"I'm extremely fortunate to be doing what I'm doing. 

I'd do it for free...but don't tell them that."
Matt Frewer

J. R. R. Tolkien

 "It does not do to leave a live dragon 

out of your calculations, if you live near him."
J. R. R. Tolkien