"Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile
And cry 'Content' to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions." --- Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." --- C. S. Lewis
“The true genius shudders at incompleteness - and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.” ― Edgar Allan Poe
“...Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures, in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in vices reaches complete bestiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others and to himself.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky
“When I cannot see words curling like rings of smoke round me I am in darkness—I am nothing.” ― Virginia Woolf
“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment