Henry David Thoreau

I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately I wanted to live deep and suck

out all the marrow of life to put to rest all that was not life and not when I came to die,

discover that I had not lived.

Pablo Neruda

What we know comes to so little, what we presume is so much, what we learn, so

laborious, we can only ask questions and die. Better save all our pride for the city of the

dead and the day of the carrion: there, when the wind shifts through the hollows of your

skull it will show you all manner of enigmatical things, whispering truths in the void

where your ears used to be.
 
 

William Shakespeare

Oh wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beautious mankind is!

Oh brave new world

That has such people in't.

from "The tempest" - Act V - Scene 1
 
 

Clarice Lispector

Não se preocupe em entender. Viver ultrapassa todo entendimento.
 
 

Jamake Highwater

The human body is the cave upon which are cast the shadows we mistake for reality.
 
 

Oscar Wilde

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that

nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
 
 

Murder is always a mistake -- one should never do anything one cannot talk about after

dinner.

from "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
 
 

Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.
 
 

Life is too short to be taken seriously.
 
 

Aldous Huxley

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going

backwards.
 
 

Friedrich Nietzsche

There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has not yet occurred

that they, too, might be admired some day.
 
 

Aristotle

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for

himself, must be either beast or a god.

from "Politics"
 

Milan Kundera

The absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the

heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his

movements as free as they are insignificant. What then shall we choose? Weight or

lightness?

From "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"
 

Albert Einstein

Have the courage to take your own thoughts seriously, for they will shape you.
 
 

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
 
 

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they

are certain, they do not refer to reality.
 
 

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals

himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
 
 

Schiller

O friends, no more these sounds!

Let us sing more cheerful song,

more full of joy!
 
 

Joy bright spark of divinity,

Daughter of Elysium,

Fire-inspired we tread Thy sanctuary.

Thy magic power re-unites

All that custom has divided,

All men become brothers

Under the sway of thy gentle wings.
 
 

Whoever has created An abiding friendship,

A true loving wife,

All who can call at least one soul theirs,

Join in our song of praise;

But any who cannot must creep tearfully

Away from our circle.
 
 

All creatures drink of joy

At nature's breast.

Just and unjust

Alike taste of her gift;

She gave us kisses and the fruit of vine,

A tried friend to the end.

Even the worm can feel contentment,

And the cherub stands before God!
 
 

Gladly, like the heavenly bodies

Which He set on their courses

Through the slendour of the firmament;

Thus, brothers, you should run your race,

As a hero going to the conquest.
 
 

You millions, I embrace you.

This kiss is for all the world!

Brothers, above the starry canopy

There must dwell a loving Father.

Do you fall in worship, you millions?

World, do you know your Creator?

Seek Hm in the heavens!

Above the stars must He dwell.

Translation of the german original in Nineth Simphony - Beethoven
 
 

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing

within him the image of a cathedral.
 
 

Perfection is reached, not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no

longer anything to take away.
 
 

Turn, turn, turn! (The Byrds)

To everything there is a season, a time for every pupose under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;

A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain, and a time to lose;

A time to keep, and a time to throw away;

A time to tear, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time of war, and a time of peace.

in Ecclesiastes 3:1-9 (!)
 
 

Fernando Pessoa

Segue o teu destino,

Rega as tuas plantas,

Ama as tuas rosas.

O resto é a sombra

De árvores alheias.
 
 

A realidade

Sempre é mais ou menos

Do que nós queremos.

Só nos somos sempre

Iguais a nós-próprios.
 

(Segue o teu destino)