When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.

- Edna O’Brien (1930- ), author

“Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends.”

- Joseph Campbell, mythographer

“For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.”
- Alice Kahn

“Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.”
- Donald Knuth (b. 1938), computer scientist

“May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this manner, may the Olympic Torch pursue its way through ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure.”

- Baron Coubertin (1863-1937), founder of the modern Olympic Games

“The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.”

- Paul Valery (1871-1945), poet and philosopher