The light has gone out of my life. - Theodore Roosevelt

"The very pathetic myth of "beneficent nature" could not deceive even the least wise being if he once saw for himself the iron cruelty of life in the tropics. Of course "nature" — in common parlance a wholly inaccurate term, by the way, especially when used as if to express a single entity — is entirely ruthless, no less so as regards types than as regards individuals, and entirely indifferent to good or evil, and works out her ends or no ends with utter disregard of pain and woe."

It is no use to preach to children if you do not act decently yourself.

Now and then I am asked as to “what books a statesman should read,” and my answer is, poetry and novels — including short stories under the head of novels. I don’t mean that he should read only novels and modern poetry. If he cannot also enjoy the Hebrew prophets and the Greek dramatists, he should be sorry. He ought to read interesting books on history and government, and books of science and philosophy; and really good books on these subjects are as enthralling as any fiction ever written in prose or verse.