The bestseller charts, a sure indicator of public taste, tell us with relentless frequency that Marian Keyes or Jeffrey Archer is a better author, by some dizzying six-figure sum, both in numbers of copies and money, than, say, J. M. Coetzee or Patrick White. Are they right?
When we label anyone 'bad', we will have more trouble dealing with him than if we could have settled for a lesser label.
I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices today than any of you to secure peace.
I used to go out wearing any old rubbish, no make-up, nothing, but since mobile phones, that has all had to stop. People do come up to you so often and say hello, or want a photograph, and I just can't do it anymore in what I used to wear. They don't want to be seen hanging off a rabid old granny any more than I do.
I just find 'Scooby-Doo' unwatchable. I can't stand it. I like all those other Hanna-Barbera shows about a thousand times more than 'Scooby-Doo.'
Books are a real solace, friendships are good but action is better than all.
In market research I did at Microsoft Corp. in the early 1990s, I estimated that the 'Wall Street Journal' took in about 75 cents per copy from subscribers, $1.25 at the newsstand and a whopping $5 per copy from ads. The ad revenue let them run a far bigger newsroom than subscribers were paying for.
When a person is down in the world, an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching.
There's enormous progressive activism and, more often than not, success at the grassroots level - everything from living wage campaigns to efforts to finance our elections are having terrific success.
People do dollar cost averaging because they have regret of making one big mistake. But the fact of the matter is that, mathematically, the market rises more of the time than it falls. It falls, but it rises more of the time than it falls.
One's happiness depends less on what he knows than on what he feels.
There have been few things in my life which have had a more genial effect on my mind than the possession of a piece of land.
I might sing a gospel song in Arabic or do something in Hebrew. I want to mix it up and do it differently than one might imagine.
To suggest that organic vegetables, which cost far more than conventional produce, can feed billions of people in parts of the world without roads or proper irrigation may be a fantasy based on the finest intentions. But it is a cruel fantasy nonetheless.
There's nothing I value more than the closeness of friends and family, a smile as I pass someone on the street.
Baseball is more than a game. It's like life played out on a field.
I couldn't survive just doing independent movies. And I'd rather do modelling than movies or TV I didn't like.
It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.
The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell without being heard.
The sparrow that is twittering on the edge of my balcony is calling up to me this moment a world of memories that reach over half my lifetime, and a world of hope that stretches farther than any flight of sparrows.
No one can make me work harder than I do, so I'm generally not interested in who I am competing with.
It's important that I'm always playing fresh and that I'm ready to go rather than just playing because I feel like I have to.
Three years after the four deepest previous recessions began - in 1953, 1957, 1973 and 1981 - employment was on average 4.7% higher than the pre-recession peak.
There is much to life than fame and fortune. If you are a part of the entertainment industry, please remember it is all temporary.
I watched 'Who' with a mixture of affection and exasperation through the eighties, always ready to cheer on the Doctor but seldom feeling that the series was playing to its strengths. Some of the adventures, revisited on DVD, turn out to be better than I remembered - others just as infuriating.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
A compelling story, even if factually inaccurate, can be more emotionally compelling than a dry recitation of the truth.
When you are in the family... you have more rights than when you are asking to join and knocking on the door.
I don't want to wake up and be bored. That's probably my greatest fear is to have nothing to do. What better job is there than to play quarterback for an NFL team, and certainly one that I've been on for a long time and had success with? I don't plan on giving it up any time soon.
This foundational principle - that human beings derive their rights from God, rather than from the State, or any other source - is what made America different.
If I could find anything blacker than black, I'd use it.
Consistently, Baidu has censored politically sensitive search results much more thoroughly than Google.cn.
Beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword.
Today's younger generation is no worse than my own. We were just as ignorant and repulsive as they are, but nobody listened to us.
That's what as an artist you always try to do. To try to be a sharper mind than the average person.
I'd rather break stones on the king's highway than hem a handkerchief.
