‘I think I know what sort of person I am. But then I think, But this stranger will imagine me quite otherwise when he or she hears this or that to my credit, for instance that I have a position at the university: the fact that I have a position at the university will appear to mean that I must be the sort of person who has a position at the university. But then I have to admit, with surprise, that, after all, it is true that I have a position at the university. And if it is true, then perhaps I really am the sort of person you imagine when you hear that a person has a position at the university. But, on the other hand, I know I am not the sort of person I imagine when I hear that a person has a position at the university. Then I see what the problem is: when others describe me this way, they appear to describe me completely, whereas in fact they do not describe me completely, and a complete description of me would include truths that seem quite incompatible with the fact that I have a position at the university.’

-Lydia Davis/ ‘A Position at the University’

A despairing, shell-shocked war soldier in Toni Morrison’s ‘Sula’:

“Twenty two years old,weak,hot,frightened,not daring to acknowledge the fact that he didn’t even know who or what he was…with no past, no language, no tribe, no source, no address book, no comb, no pencil, no clock, no pocket handkerchief, no rug, no bed, no can opener, no faded postcard, no soap, no key, no tobacco pouch, no soiled underwear and nothing nothing nothing to do…”

ALEXANDER POPE

People should never be ashamed to own they have been in the wrong,which is but to say they are wiser today than they were yesterday.

JOHN P ROCHE

In politics,a straight line is the shortest distance to disaster.

W C FILEDS

More people are driven insane through religious hysteria than by drinking alcohol.

CHESTER BOWLES

Government is too big and important to be left to politicians.

B F SKINNER

Education is what survives when what you have learnt has been forgotten.