Ive never believed in lower wages. Never. Never believed in lower wage — John Howard

"Leadership of the Liberal Party is a great honour, of which I remain profoundly conscious. It is, moreover, the unique gift of the party room."

"A conservative is someone who does not think he is morally superior to his grandfather."

"Im not in favour of going back to a White Australia policy. I do believe that, if it [non-European immigration] is in the eyes of some in the community, its too great, it would be in our immediate term interest and supporting of social cohesion if it were slowed down a little, so the capacity of the community to absorb it was greater."

"By the year 2000 I would like to see an Australian nation that feels comfortable and relaxed about three things. I would like to see them comfortable and relaxed about their history. I would like to see them comfortable and relaxed about the present and Id also like to see them comfortable and relaxed about the future."

"I dont think it is wrong, racist, immoral or anything, for a country to say we will decide what the cultural identity and the cultural destiny of this country will be and nobody else."

"Truth is absolute, truth is supreme, truth is never disposable in national political life."

"Im weary, Im weary,—this cold world of ours; I will go dwell afar, with fairies and flowers. . . . . Im weary, Im weary,—Im off with the wind: Can I find a worse fate than the one left behind?"

"Gather the flowers, but spare the buds."

"Yeah, there was a period in the late 80s where I was working with different shaman. Myself and a friend, Beene, would take ayahuasca - but it wouldnt be in the liquid form, it would be a freeze-dried pill - and mushrooms. Some of those trips were eighteen hours long and Ill never forget, once I ended up sitting by the bush trying to ask the flowers why they didnt like me. Its like, Why cant I be your friend? I was crawling out of my skin at that time. In my twenties I was really... I was just losing my mind."

"“Surfing the Web” (as dubious a metaphor as “the information highway”) is, as a friend of mine has it, “like reading magazines with the pages stuck together.” My wife shakes her head in dismay as I patiently await the downloading of some Japanese Beatles fans personal catalog of bootlegs. “But it’s from Japan!” She isnt moved. She goes out to enjoy the flowers in her garden."

"Thomson was a mathematical prodigy. At age 16, he mastered ’s and wrote and published a defense of it. Fourier’s theory allowed one to determine the distribution of heat in a body on the sole assumption that heat flow is proportional to temperature gradient. The approach was macroscopic, geometrical, and nonhypothetical, and Thomson took to it easily. During his undergraduate years at , he traveled to Paris and met the mathematical savants—in particular, mathematician Joseph Liouville and experimental physicist , who both considered Michael Faraday’s curved lines of force outré. At Liouville’s urging, Thomson produced for the a demonstration that the lines of force, whether electric or magnetic, followed from inverse square laws. The relevant mathematics was a near cousin to that for heat flow, but the insight was new and would be seminal in the thinking that led James Clerk Maxwell to electromagnetic field theory."

"Last night I couldnt sleep till after four in the morning – I had been out to the canyon all afternoon – till late at night – wonderful color – I wish I could tell you how big – and with the night the colors deeper and darker – cattle on the pastures in the bottom looked line little pinheads. I can understand Pa Dow painting his pretty colored canyons – it must have been a great temptation – no wonder he fell. Then the moon rose right up out of the ground after we got out on the plains again – battered a little where he bumped his head but enormous – There was no wind – it was just big and still – so very big and still – long legged jack rabbits hopping across in front of the light as we passed – A great place to see the night time because there is nothing else. – then I came home – not sleepy so I made a pattern of some flowers I had picked – They were like waterlilies – white ones – with the quality of smoothness gone."