Sting

“...being in love is to be relieved of gravity.”

“You have to be yourself. Stay true to who and what you are. And if people still like you, that's great! If they don't, that's their problem.”

“Sweet desert roseEach of her veils, a secret promiseThis desert flowerNo sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this”

“If we seek solace in the prisons of the distant pastSecurity in human systems we're told will always always lastEmotions are the sail and blind faith is the mastWithout the breath of real freedom we're getting nowhere fast."(History Will Teach Us Nothing)”

“I don't drink coffee I take tea my dearI like my toast done on one side ..."(Englishman in New York)”

“There is no monopoly of common senseOn either side of the political fenceWe share the same biologyRegardless of ideologyBelieve me when I say to youI hope the Russians love their children too[...]There's no such thing as a winnable warIt's a lie we don't believe anymore ..."(The Russians)”

“Humans make the mistake of believing that it is their right to survive. Species die out on this planet all the time without anyone noticing. The planet will still be there, and we must lose this attitude of divine right, that something will save us...”

“The alley is a pitch for about twenty women leaning in doorways, chain-smoking. In their shiny open raincoats, short skirts, cheap boots, and high-heeled shoes they watch the street with hooded eyes, like spies in a B movie. Some are young and pretty, and some are older, and some of them are very old, with facial expressions ranging from sullen to wry. Most of the commerce is centred on the slightly older women, as if the majority of the clients prefer experience and worldliness. The younger, prettier girls seem to do the least business, apparent innocence being only a minority preference, much as it is for the aging crones in the alley who seem as if they’ve been standing there for a thousand years.In the dingy foyer of the hotel is an old poster from La Comédie Française, sadly peeling from the all behind the desk. Cyrano de Bergerac, it proclaims, a play by Edmond Rostand. I will stand for a few moments to take in its fading gaiety. It is a laughing portrait of a man with an enormous nose and a plumed hat. He is a tragic clown whose misfortune is his honour. He is a man entrusted with a secret; an eloquent and dazzling wit who, having successfully wooed a beautiful woman on behalf of a friend cannot reveal himself as the true author when his friend dies. He is a man who loves but is not loved, and the woman he loves but cannot reach is called Roxanne.That night I will go to my room and write a song about a girl. I will call her Roxanne. I will conjure her unpaid from the street below the hotel and cloak her in the romance and the sadness of Rostand’s play, and her creation will change my life.”

“If "Manners maketh man," as someone saidThen he's the hero of the dayIt takes a man to suffer ignorance and smileBe yourself, no matter what they say."(Englishman in New York)”

“Every road I walked would take me down to the seaWith every broken promise in my sackAnd every love would always send the ship of my heartOver the rolling sea”

“He deals the cards to find the answerThe sacred geometry of chanceThe hidden law of a probable outcomeThe numbers lead a danceI know that the spadesAre the swords of a soldierI know that the clubs are weapons of warI know that diamondsMean money for this artBut that's not the shape of my heart”

“I see a city in the desert liesThe vanity of an ancient kingBut the city lies in broken piecesWhile the wind howls and the vultures sing”

“Men go crazy in congregation. They only get better one by one.”

“For to sit in a room full of books, and remember the stories they told you, and to know precisely where each one is located and what was happening in your life at time or where you were when you first read it is the languid and distilled pleasure of the connoisseur.”

“It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile.”

“Takes more than combat gear to make a man Takes more than a license for a gun Confront your enemies, avoid them when you can A gentleman will walk but never run ”

“At night a candle's brighter than the sun”

“Songs are built by whimsy, faulty memory, and free association.”

“a gentleman will walk but never run..it takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile..be yourself no matter what they say..”

“It's a big enough umbrella, but it's always me that ends up getting wet.”

“Without the voice of reason, every faith is its own curse."(History Will Teach Us Nothing)”

“Great music as much about the space in between the notes as it is about the notes themselves.”

“He knows that something somewhere has to break/He sees the family home now looming in the headlights/The pain upstairs that makes his eyeballs ache/Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage/on the shore of a dark Scottish lake”