What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?

GEORGE ELIOT, ENGLISH WRITER, RD FEBRUARY 1969

I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one’s business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a state of continued becoming, with a goal in front and not behind. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, PLAYWRIGHT, RD OCTOBER 1966 Marriage should combat without respite that monster which devours everything – habit. HONORÉ DE BALZAC, FRENCH WRITER, RD OCTOBER 1967 The most interesting people are those about whom we continue to know the least – not because they surround themselves with mystery, but because some unconscious dignity in them forbids intrusion, and modesty keeps them from the easy confidence. To them, with their untold secrets, the imagination, fascinated, returns. ELIZABETH BOWEN, RD NOVEMBER 1967 The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives. ALBERT SCHWEITZER, HUMANITARIAN, RD FEBRUARY 1970 Tidiness is one of those virtues that never will be assimilated with pleasure. It makes life easier and more agreeable, does harm to no one, actually saves time and trouble to the person who practices it – yet there must be some ominous flaw to explain why, in spite of the concerted effort of humanity to try to teach it to the young, millions in every generation continue to reject it. FREYA STARK, EXPLORER,