Modern politics today requires a mastery of television. I’ve never really warmed up to television and, in fairness to television, it’s never warmed up to me.

 —Walter F. Mondale, after losing the presidential election in 1984

Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

 —Ronald Reagan

Politics, as hopeful men practice it in the world, consists mainly of the delusion that a change in form is a change in substance.

 —H.L. Mencken

Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still small voice says to us, “Something is out of tune.”

 —Carl Jung

Certain keys, tonalities, and melodic formulas fortify the human character; others may weaken it. Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the secret places of the soul.

—Plato, The Republic

The creative process, to me, is the key to life and living.

—Retired attorney and artist Ken Evans

Every man wants to connect his life with something he thinks eternal.

—Paul Mellon

Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest, and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock.

  —American clergyman Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike.

—American author Harriet Beecher Stowe

Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers – and never succeeding.

—Marc Chagall

Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.

 —Don Marquis

I’m very proud of my gold pocket watch. My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch.

 —Woody Allen

You have to decide whether you want to make money or make sense, because the two are mutually exclusive.

—R. Buckminster Fuller

People who know how much they’re worth aren’t usually worth that much.

—Nelson Bunker Hunt

Write out of love, write out of instinct, write out of reason. But always for money.

—Louis Untermeyer

(Each week this column features quotations gleaned from the readings and experiences of our editors, reporters, readers, and friends. All are invited to submit quotations for inclusion here. They may be sent to Gleanings, c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470     or emailed to editor@thebee.com.)