I failed to get into drama school, and my best friend told me I should

do stand-up instead. I was always doing gags and voices, so he booked a gig for me without telling me. I only had four days to write it. I did a seven-minute set; the first four minutes were terrible, but the last two were amazing.
Marcus Brigstocke

I will do everything in my power to ensure that our United Nations can live up to its name, and be truly united; so that we can live up to the hopes that so many people around the world place in this institution, which is unique in the annals of human history.
Ban Ki-moon

I feel we must all exert ourselves to the utmost to see that the ideals and hopes held by Alfred Nobel, whom we commemorate today, do not fail from lack of purpose on the part of scientists.
Howard Florey

Whether weapons exist in Iraq, Saddam Hussein or post-Saddam Hussein, it is a serious enough issue that require that we continue to go and make sure that Iraq does not have weapons.
Mohamed ElBaradei

I'm a Sagittarius, born in the year of the rat, all of which is basically meaningless to me.
Kevin Brockmeier

People think I'm going to be this really dark human when they meet me.
Banks

When Occupy Wall Street happened, I took my money out of Citibank. I already had problems with all the banks - Citibank, Bank of America - but I was kind of just too lazy to take my money out until I saw how Citibank responded to Occupy Wall Street.
Talib Kweli

Let every Latter-day Saint give value received for everything he gets, whether it be in work, or whatever he does.
Heber J. Grant

Strong growth means increased use of energy at a pace that can strain the capacity to supply what is needed at a reasonable price.
George P. Shultz

Gemeoss

Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts

me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness. Helen Keller For me, unemployment and poverty in the Greater Montreal area is not mainly a problem of structure, or design, or statistics. It is a profoundly human situation. Kim Campbell Nature makes woman to be won and men to win. George William Curtis I'm pretty catholic about what constitutes science fiction. Frederik Pohl Paradise is exactly like where you are right now... only much, much better. Laurie Anderson

It was impossible for me to believe that conditions in Europe could be worse than

they were in the Polish section of Chicago, and in many Italian and Irish tenements, or that any workshops could be worse than some of those I had seen in our foreign quarters. Alice Hamilton What is sad for women of my generation is that they weren't supposed to work if they had families. What were they going to do when the children are grown - watch the raindrops coming down the window pane? Jackie Kennedy In order for the artist to have a world to express he must first be situated in this world, oppressed or oppressing, resigned or rebellious, a man among men. Charles Baudelaire In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch Is offering too little and asking too much. The French are with equal advantage content, So we clap on Dutch bottoms just twenty per cent. George Canning Money is only useful when you get rid of it. It is like the odd card in 'Old Maid'; the player who is finally left with it has lost. Evelyn Waugh Life is ten percent what happens to yo...

The Marines in Korea never feared 'friendly fire' or artillery coming from the South Koreans

- from their allies - like they did later in Vietnam, fighting with the South Vietnamese. The Koreans could be trusted. David Douglas Duncan Diversifying our tech talent pool is an imperative for the tech sector. More diverse engineers and entrepreneurs will bring about a new type of innovation that Silicon Valley has yet to see. Mitch Kapor I'm not harmful, just introspective. You can probably think I'm weird, but it's not harmful weird. Henry Rollins They say Einstein died while he was still trying to figure out gravity. I think I'm going to die still trying to figure out some of the things about Blink. Tom DeLonge My mother reads tarot cards, actually, but I won't let her read mine. Sam Taylor-Johnson The 'Carousel' overture has always been one of my all-time favorite pieces of music. Kelli O'Hara I try to have the motto of living life with no regrets. Matt Flynn I general don't color my stuff - I'm pretty horrible with co...

I don't know the accident of still being married. I was the worst human being.

But we were, I guess, in love. So much has happened to us to bring us together and keep us together. Shelley Berman My first time overseas was taking 10,000 tons of beer to Vietnam. John F. Kelly In the beginning, I was riddled with major complexes about my looks. Even now, here and there, these complexes crop up. But as the days progressed, I learnt to handle them much better. Dhanush A lot of times, I don't want to listen to my stuff, because I'm thinking maybe I didn't do my best. Darius Rucker I don't feel that I'm particularly political. I'm interested in politics; I'll express my view if I feel strongly about something, but humanitarian issues, I think, are slightly different. Gary Lineker I was never drawn just into fashion. I was drawn into it because I am really interested in serving women and providing women with solutions, trying to figure out what we need and why we need that and why we wear stuff, how it makes us feel. That was al...

Red Carpet Enterprise has been really well received since one guy can install

it in about an hour, and it makes it trivial to deal with software management issues like deploying updates and creating standard package sets for your various machines. Nat Friedman Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps. William Blake Morality is a test of our conformity rather than our integrity. Jane Rule We should be as careful of the books we read, as of the company we keep. The dead very often have more power than the living. Tryon Edwards Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Ralph Waldo Emerson

You can give men food and leisure and amusements and good conditions of work, and

still they will remain unsatisfied. You can deny them all these things, and they will not complain so long as they feel that they have something to die for. Christopher Dawson Apart from that Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play? Tom Lehrer This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes. Hannah Arendt I will fight for my children on any level so they can reach their potential as human beings and in their public duties. Princess Diana Rarely do members of the same family grow up under the same roof. Richard Bach

Is the minor convenience of allowing the present generation the luxury of doubling

its energy consumption every 10 years worth the major hazard of exposing the next 20,000 generations to this lethal waste? David R. Brower The democracy process provides for political and social change without violence. Aung San Suu Kyi The difference between an author and a horse is that the horse doesn't understand the horse dealer's language. Max Frisch When widows exclaim loudly against second marriages, I would always lay a wager than the man, If not the wedding day, is absolutely fixed on. Henry Fielding Men still have to be governed by deception. Georg C. Lichtenberg

Well, number one I like dancing. Number two I knew it would be

challenging because I had never done this type of dance before. I always wanted to and I happened to have the courage to go out there and give it my best shot. Evander Holyfield Take pleasure in your dreams; relish your principles and drape your purest feelings on the heart of a precious lover. Giotto di Bondone It is guaranteed to put all teeth on edge, including George Washington's, wherever they might be. Vincent Canby Time is what prevents everything from happening at once. John Archibald Wheeler I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day. Abraham Lincoln

Of all the species of literary composition, perhaps biography is the most delightful. The attention

concentrated on one individual gives a unity to the materials of which it is composed, which is wanting in general history. Robert Hall And I can't tell you how many women from a certain age group - they would be in their 30s now, 20s and 30s - tell me about how I was their role model when they were young girls. Lindsay Wagner We went to - I guess it was a legitimate boiler room, and I sat in front of this guy who literally was on the phone with two people at once. They call it double fisting. Giovanni Ribisi I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being. Theodore Roosevelt But I'm going to be a real good boy and take it day by day and try to concentrate on what's most important to me, and that's offering women a service. John Galliano An actor remembers his first piece of published praise. It is written on his heart. Conrad...

The two sensibilities, the visual and the verbal, have always been linked for me -

in fact, while reading a particularly evocative passage, I will imagine what the photograph I'd take of that scene would look like, even with burning and dodging notes. Maybe everyone does this. Sally Mann Hip-hop is the people. What the people are moving toward is what hip-hop is. I think people are moving toward a freer way of thinking. Openness. Erykah Badu I can't work in an environment where it's a stiff hierarchy; that's not my kind of way. Steven Rodney McQueen Tapas is a celebration of life. Jose Andres Everything I've written is based on something that has happened to me or something that I know a great deal about. Peter Benchley It was great being brought up in a Glasgow working-class tenement. It wasn't miserable, and it wasn't poverty stricken. It felt very safe, full of delights. Peter Capaldi The full thing is God-given. I don't know how I got my swing or what I did. I know I worked every single day. I know I did as much a...