Quotations

"Is letting our children watch TV a form of child abuse? If our children grow up knowing everything about Britney Spears and nothing about nature or faith, is that not a form of child abuse?"

— Patch Adams, American physician, born 1945

"Clowning is a trick to get love close. I can hug 99 percent of people in the first second of contact if I'm in my clown character. The clown assumes your humanity. It assumes that, whatever trauma you've had, you can still love yourself."

— Patch Adams, American physician, born 1945

"The role of a clown and a physician are the same - it's to elevate the possible and to relieve suffering."

— Patch Adams, American physician, born 1945

"We can always promise care, but cannot promise cure."

— Patch Adams, American physician, born 1945

"There are days when I wake and find my face is a hole and I have nowhere to hang my mask."

— Carl Adamshick, American poet, born 1969

"Oblivion and significance brush our bones, leave us weeping for strangers."

— Carl Adamshick, American poet, born 1969

"Art's whatever you choose to frame."

— Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet, born 1934

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable."

— Joseph Addison, English poet, born 1672

"A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side."

— Joseph Addison, English poet, born 1672

"Love’s merciless, the way it travels in and keeps emitting light."

— Kim Addonizio, American poet, born 1954

"I'm so in love with you I can't stand up."

— Kim Addonizio, American poet, born 1954

"Masculinity is a hard, small cage, and we put boys inside this cage."

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian author, born 1977

"We teach girls shame. “Close your legs. Cover yourself.” We make them feel as though being born female they’re already guilty of something. And so, girls grow up to be women who cannot say they have desire. They grow up to be women who silence themselves. They grow up to be women who cannot say what they truly think. And they grow up — and this is the worst thing we do to girls — they grow up to be women who have turned pretense into an art form."

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian author, born 1977

"It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them."

— Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist, born 1870