It's amazing how something she wrote about a totally different situation applies so well to what some people like myself are going through today.

I've put an excerpt below with the author's permission.

quotes fascinate me - it is so interesting to see what perspectives great men have and what they have to say about humans in general. sadly though, much of it arent exactly glowing remarks :

Men willingly believe what they wish.
- Julius Caesar


Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
- Euripides


well then, if all men are fools, then doesnt that mean that there isnt any point conducting any conversations in life? ain't it a pity? and since the dawn of time there has always been ample room for self doubt and mutual suspicion thanks to man's innate dark and cunning side :

oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!
- sir walter scott, marmion. canto vi. stanza 17.

i cannot tell how the truth may be, i say the tale as it was said to me.
- sir walter scott

a lie told often enough becomes the truth.
- lenin


ah, BUT! god made men kinda special - he gave us the power to lie and sham, but he also gave us the power to analyse, to search for truth, and ultimately, forgive :

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.
- Sir Francis Bacon

There is one thing alone that stands the brunt of life throughout its course : a quiet conscience.
- Euripides

Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
- Abraham Lincoln

then we become ironic and cynical (but very very wise words indeed):

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
- Oscar Wilde

Not that you lied to me but that I no longer believe you - that is what has distressed me.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, maxim #183

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
- John F. Kennedy

but ultimately...

The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved.
- Victor Hugo


and we are.

so i guess all this makes living life the exciting rollercoaster trip it is - discovery, denial, acceptance, faith, and love.

life is full of little ironies that sometime laugh right in your face... and laughing right back is such a joyful thing to do!

so i guess we still have far to go in order to even vaguely unravel the complexities of Man :

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of Mankind is Man
- Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Man"


Last, and very very intriguing thought :

We make war that we may live in peace.
- Aristotle



Well said, all you dead people & the author of this post. :)