Semifinalist National Merit Quotes & Sayings

Readers, transformed by film and TV, are used to seeing stories. The reading experience ... is increasingly visual. — Sol Stein

Our past is a fictional representation, and the only thing we can be even somewhat sure of is what is happening now. It encourages us to live in the moment and not to place too much importance on our past. It forces us to accept that the best time of our lives, and our memory, is right now. And — Julia Shaw

Leafpaw felt a tingle spread through her fur. She remembered her own conviction, back when she had been little more than a kit, that it was right for her to heal and comfort her Clanmates, and to interpret the signs of StarClan for them. Has Mothwing felt the same? Leafpaw wondered. Could she have felt the same, if she was not Clanborn? Even Yellowfang, the medicine cat before Cinderpelt, had been forestborn, though ThunderClan had not been the Clan of her birth. — Erin Hunter

It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story. — Haruki Murakami

If you have problems in your life, don't assume there is something wrong with you. — Bruce C. Hafen

A man can only be judged by his actions, and not by his good intentions or his beliefs — Paul Newman

If you're so afraid of failure, you will never succeed. You have to take chances. — Mario Andretti

What decent philosopher was ever an appeaser? The former is a rare catch among the multitudes of modern opinionists. His role is to be one who loves truth. That is a place where his love for humanity is more powerful than his love for hot air about empowering humanity. — Criss Jami

In the course of the world, a man must very often put on an easy, frank countenance, upon very disagreeable occasions; he must seem pleased, when he is very much otherwise; he must be able to accost and receive with smiles, those whom he would much rather meet with swords. — Lord Chesterfield

Say did you read in the papers about a bunch of Women up in British Columbia as a protest against high taxes, sit out in the open naked, and they wouldent put their clothes on? The authorities finally turned a Sprayer that you use on trees, on 'em. That may lead into quite a thing. Woman comes into the tax office nude, saying I won't pay. Well they can't search her and get anything. It sounds great. How far is it to British Columbia? — Will Rogers

I had never seen eyes like his. Dark green. Smoldering. Ready to undress a woman with a single glance. — J.C. Reed

NOTHING can/will define me! Free to be EVERYTHING!!! — Miley Cyrus