There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to -- if there are no doors or windows -- he walks through a wall.
- Bernard Malamud, novelist and short-story writer (1914-1986)


Don't be yourself. Be someone a little nicer.
- Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983)

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
- Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)

To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there's more idleness and abuse of government favours among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged.
​- Norman Mailer, author (1923-2007)

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.
- Madeleine L'Engle, writer (1918-2007)


Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.
- Alan Alda, actor and director (b. 1936)