People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals - that is, goals that do not inspire them.

我不是说唱歌手，我是一个非洲的传奇。

环境管理不是可选的——这是我们对后代的责任。

写作的行为是一种勇气的行为，是对生命短暂本质的挑战。

At that age， I'd take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I'd calculate our gas mileage -- figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I'd been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I can't remember the details， but basically the ad said， every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate， I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per days， estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I'd come up with a reasonable number， I poked my head into the front of the car， tapped my grandmother on the shoulder， and proudly proclaimed， "At two minutes per puff， you've taken nine years off your life！"

The artist must be a mirror of the cosmos.

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.

In my solitude of heart I feel the sigh of this widowed evening veiled with mist and rain.