The politicians don't just want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless. When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both. The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time. In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects. Popularity comes from allowing yourself to be bored by people while pretending to enjoy it. It is books that are a key to the wide world; if you can't do anything else, read all that you can. The future belongs to those who prepare for it today. Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech. There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew. A child's hand in yours -- what tenderness and power it arouses. You are instantly the very touchstone of wisdom and strength. | 
