One of the things I like to do when I relax is a puzzle, specifically the Code Words puzzles. Code Words look like crosswords in format but instead of solving cryptic or knowledge clues you have to find out which letter is represented by a number from 1 to 26. You are usually given two or three letters to start with and have to find out the rest by doing things like seeing which letter has the largest number because that is probably the letter E. A variation on this theme which are also included in the puzzle books I buy are called cryptograms. These are quotations with the same idea except this time numbers are not involved but instead you get letters and have to find out which letter represents the actual letters. The quotations are taken from various sources - some are not people I've necessarily heard of but that doesn't invalidate the value of the quotation. Ohers are from the more famous and here are some examples from that latter group.

“The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everyone else, and this is a feeling that I have always cultivated. “Oscar Wilde, poet and playwright

“A successful parent is one who raises a child who grows up and is able to pay for his or her own psychoanalysis.” Nora Ephron, journalist and writer

“In the part of the universe that we know there is great injustice and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of these is more annoying.” Bertrand Russell, mathematician and philosopher

“Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” Mark Twain, writer

 “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy, for they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Marcel Proust, novelist

“Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes is right, but it takes a slightly bigger man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.” Gen Peyton C. March, U S army

“At the end, Schwarzenegger makes his ritual preparations for the climactic showdown, decking himself out in leather, packing up an arsenal of guns, and, as he leaves his apartment, copping a quick look of satisfaction in the mirror. It's his only love scene.” Pauline Kael, film critic

“The artist brings something into the world that didn’t exist before, and he does it without destroying something else.” John Updike, novelist

“The single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots bring up and make new trees.” Amelia Earhart, aviator

“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.” Bertrand Russell

“So beauty gives you a weird sense of entitlement, it's rather frightening and threatening to have others ascribe such importance to something you know you are just renting for a while.” Candace Bergen, actress

“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even when there is no river.” Nikita Khrushchev, politician

“If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.” George Carlin, comedian and social critic

“Nobody’s journeys smooth. We all stumble. We all have setbacks. It’s just life’s way of saying ‘Time to change course. ‘ “Oprah Winfrey, TV host and producer

“Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way. You become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.” Aristotle, polymath and philosopher

“You know your children are growing up when they stop asking where they came from and refuse to tell you where they are going.” PJ O'Rourke, author and journalist

“When any two young people take it into their heads to marry they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so likely to be necessary to each other’s ultimate comfort.” Jane Austen, novelist

“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things around us.” Iris Murdoch, novelist

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of even forming such opinions.” Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist

“An onion can make people cry but I wonder why there has never been a vegetable invented to make them laugh.” Will Rogers, vaudeville performer and humorous social commentator

“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, kindness from the unkind; yet strangely, I am ungrateful to these teachers.” Khahlil Gibran, writer and poet

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything done over a book! When I have a house of my own I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library” Jane Austen, author

“Civilised life has grown altogether too tame, and if it is to be stable it must provide harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote ancestors satisfied in hunting.” Bertrand Russell

“The more I read and observe about this politics thing, you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that’s out always looks the best.” Will Rogers

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatsoever that it is not utterly absurd; Indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” Bertrand Russell

“To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilisation, and at present very few people have reached this level.” Bertrand Russell

“All mothers love their own children as best they can, according to their temperament and circumstances, and all mothers should have done better, in their children's eyes, when the going gets tough for the children.” Fay Weldon author

“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” David Attenborough broadcaster

“98% of the adults in this country are decent, modest, hard-working Americans. It is the other lousy 2% who get all the publicity. But then we elected them.” Lily Tomlin, actress and comedian

“The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, Is there a meaning to music? My answer would be ‘Yes’. And can you state in so many words what the meaning is? My answer to that would be ‘No’. Aaron Copland, Composer

“The laws ought to be so framed. as to secure the safety of every citizen as much as possible. Political liberty does not consist in the notion that a man may do whatever he pleases; liberty is the right to do whatsoever the laws allow “Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give them orders. Instead teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery, writer and aviator

“There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning towards you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.” Sir Winston Churchill, statesman and writer

“Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties from conservatives to anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to serve an appearance of solidity to pure wind. “George Orwell, author and journalist

“I am a conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few. “ Benjamin Disraeli, statesman and writer

 “The elevation of appearance over substance, of celebrity over character, of short-term gain over lasting achievement displays a poverty of ambition. It distracts you from what is truly important.” Barack Obama, 44th US president

“The common idea that success spoils people by making them vein, egotistical and self-complacent is erroneous; On the contrary, it makes them for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind. Failure makes people cruel and bitter.” W Somerset Maugham, author

“We should every night call ourselves to account; what infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abort of themselves if they be brought every day to shrift.” Seneca, philosopher, statesman and dramatist