On democracy:
I am not running for mayor yet. But if it comes to be true that people cannot voice an opinion unless they have been elected, then we are no longer in a democracy,
- Margaret Atwood, in response to Rob and Doug Ford's plans to close Toronto libraries

On the purpose of life:
What is there in life except love?
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in Cancer Ward

On "Who owns the patent on [the Salk] vaccine?":
Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?
- Jonas Salk (video)

On diversity:
For almost 2 million people in Toronto, English is a second language. So I feel right at home here.
-Stéphane Dion

On life:
Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?
- Steve Jobs

On reality:
Is this a real column?
- Anonymous, while I'm running a column

On me (perhaps...):
It may be the character of his mind, to always be in singular need of occupation.
- Charles Dickens, in A Tale of Two Cities

On humanity:
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few -- or the one.
- Spock, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

On research:
Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing.
- Werner von Braun

On a minority government:
Come hell or high water, there's no frigging way I'm going to let one ovary bring the government down.
- Carolyn Parrish, suffering from stomach pain but vowing to vote in support of the government on a budget vote, Thurs. May 19, 2005

On the poor:
She had actually squandered... ten roubles out of the twenty Raskolnikov had given her for Marmeladov's funeral [her husband]. ... Perhaps the most potent influence on her was that special 'pride of the poor', which makes many poor people, in observing some of those social rites obligatory in our way of life for all and sundry, exert their utmost efforts and spend the last penny of their savings, simply in order to make as good a showing as their neighbours and not be 'criticized' by them.
- Feodor Dostoevsky, in Crime and Punishment.

On children:
Never fear spoiling children by making them too happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in which all good affections grow.
- English novelist Ann Eliza Bray, Thought du jour in The Globe and Mail on Thurs. Dec 23, 2004.

On proof:
A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven.
- Jean Chrétien, Sept. 6, 2002

On same-sex marriage:
To have a referendum to decide on the fate of the minority, it's a problem. It's why we have constitutions - to protect the rights of the minority. It's why we have the Charter of Rights. So if it is always the majority vote by referendum, who will defend the minorities?
- Jean Chrétien, Aug. 2003

On mathematics:
Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater.
- Albert Einstein

On writing (and speaking):
My liege, and madam, to exposulate / What majesty should be, what duty is, / Why day is day, night night, and time is time, / Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time. / Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, / And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, / I will be brief.
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Polonius. (2.2.96-102)

On chemistry:
While reading a textbook of chemistry I came upon the statement, "nitric acid acts upon copper." I was getting tired of reading such absurd stuff and I was determined to see what this meant. Copper was more or less familiar to me, for copper cents were then in use. I had seen a bottle marked nitric acid on a table in the doctor's office where I was then "doing time." I did not know its peculiarities, but the spirit of adventure was upon me. Having nitric acid and copper, I had only to learn what the words "act upon" meant. The statement "nitric acid acts upon copper" would be something more than mere words. All was still. In the interest of knowledge I was even willing to sacrifice one of the few copper cents then in my possession. I put one of them on the table, opened the bottle marked nitric acid, poured some of the liquid on the copper and prepared to make an observation. But what was this wonderful thing which I beheld? The cent was already changed and it was no small change either. A green-blue liquid foamed and fumed over the cent and over the table. The air in the neighborhood of the performance became colored dark red. A great colored cloud arose. This was disagreeable and suffocating. How should I stop this? I tried to get rid of the objectionable mess by picking it up and throwing it out of the window. I learned another fact. Nitric acid not only acts upon copper, but it acts upon fingers. The pain led to another unpremeditated experiment. I drew my fingers across my trousers and another fact was discovered. Nitric acid acts upon trousers. Taking everything into consideration, that was the most impressive experiment and relatively probably the most costly experiment I have ever performed.... It was a revelation to me. It resulted in a desire on my part to learn more about that remarkable kind of action. Plainly, the only way to learn about it was to see its results, to experiment, to work in a laboratory.
- Getman, F. H. "The Life of Ira Remsen"; Journal of Chemical Education: Madison WI.,1940; pp 9-10