Approvals Matrix Quotes & Sayings

A man must first govern himself ere he is fit to govern a family; and his family ere he be fit to bear the government of the commonwealth. — Walter Raleigh

Die? That is the last thing I shall do! — Douglas Fairbanks

When I was in high school, I was the guy directing plays after class. I started my first theater company at 19, and my second theater company at 21. I've always been a guy who doesn't do well with the passive nature of being an actor. — Matthew Lillard

Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get. — Samuel Johnson

Create happiness for others. — Dale Carnegie

The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there. — Robert M. Pirsig

The Reckoning
The time has come for Retribution
A time for Redemption, A time for Forgiveness
A time for Renewal, A time to prevail
My love will set you free my darling.
Our love, forever bound.
-SL Ross — S.L. Ross

If there was none of this magnanimity in war, we should go to war only when it was worth while going to certain death, as now. Then there would not be war because Paul Ivanovich had offended Michael Ivanovich. And when there was a war, like this one, it would be war! And then the determination of the troops would be quite different. Then all these Westphalians and Hessians whom Napoleon is leading would not follow him into Russia, and we should not go to fight in Austria and Prussia without knowing why. War is not courtesy but the most horrible thing in life; and we ought to understand that and not play at war. We ought to accept this terrible necessity sternly and seriously. It all lies in that: get rid of falsehood and let war be war and not a game. As it is now, war is the favorite pastime of the idle and frivolous. The military calling is the most highly honored. — Leo Tolstoy

The tiger springs in the new year. Us he devours. — T. S. Eliot

Oh and next time you feel like getting hammered, message me. That was some damn good stuff you puked all over yourself, I think it'd only fair I should get some, too. That hasn't already been through you, I mean. — Ann Leckie

For a little while there, I was thinking, 'I don't want to be in anything on British TV'. I didn't watch any of it because it was rubbish. — Neve McIntosh

There are so many great directors that I haven't worked with and that I would love to work with. — Jeremy Piven

ACCOUNTABILITY TODAY As noted in the first chapter, the failure of democracy to consolidate itself in many parts of the world may be due less to the appeal of the idea itself than to the absence of those material and social conditions that make it possible for accountable government to emerge in the first place. That is, successful liberal democracy requires both a state that is strong, unified, and able to enforce laws on its own territory, and a society that is strong and cohesive and able to impose accountability on the state. It is the balance between a strong state and a strong society that makes democracy work, not just in seventeenth-century England but in contemporary developed democracies as well. — Francis Fukuyama

And wrapped in this risk and danger are God's embrace and promise to work all things (even evil ones) to the good of those who love him. When we read in the book of Romans, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose" (8:28), we are not to be Pollyanna about this. Many of the "things" we will face come with the razor edges of a fallen and broken world. You can't play poker with God's mercy - if you want the sweet mercy then you must also swallow the bitter mercy. And what is the difference between sweet and bitter? Only this: your critical perspective, your worldview. One of God's greatest gifts is the ability to see and appreciate the world from points of view foreign to your own, points of view that exceed your personal experience. That is what it means to me to grow in Christ - to exceed myself as I stretch to him. — Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

Not even a hand-stitched suit could hide a body gone ruinously to seed. I was tempted to offer some fashion advice, but I didn't think he'd welcome the news that this year, bellies are being worn inside the trousers — Val McDermid