You can't allus have things like they are in poetry. Poetry ain't what you'd call truth. There ain't enough room in the verses.

Singer's commentary, The Ballad of Sam Bass

the halt, the lame, half-made creatures that we are

Robert K. Greanleaf, Servant Leadership

Hoc opus, hic labor est

Prophet, Aeneid

...an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a pile of stones is a house

Henri Poincaré, Ch. IX: Hypotheses in Physics

As Estha stirred the thick jam he thought Two Thoughts and the Two Thoughts he thought were these:
a) Anything can happen to anyone.
and
b) It is best to be prepared.

Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Nam eloquentiam quae admirationem non habet nullam iudico

Cicero, Letter to Brutus

Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our rafts are checked… the human individual lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use... only very exceptional individuals push to their extremes.

William James, The Energies of Men

Let me tell you something, brother. The notes are right underneath your fingers, baby. You just gotta take the time out to play the right notes.

Ray Charles