The imaginary is not formed in opposition to reality as its denial or compensation; it grows among signs, from book to book, in the interstice of repetitions and commentaries; it is born and takes shape in the interval between books. It is the phenomena of the library. - Michel Foucault
COMMERCE, n. A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E. - Ambrose Bierce
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others. - Bertrand Russell
Managers receiving hundreds of thousands a year—and setting their compensation for themselves—are not being paid wages, they are appropriating surplus value in the guise of wages. - Michael Harrington
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. - Søren Kierkegaard
The breathtaking view at the mountaintop is compensation for all of the breath lost whilst sweating towards it. - Matshona Dhliwayo
No true friendship takes account of credit and debt. It gives freely, without thought of compensation or reward. - Una McCormack
Beware of sentimental alliances where the consciousness of good deeds is the only compensation for noble sacrifices. - Otto von Bismarck
A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it - Roald Dahl
Egotism is nature's compensation for mediocrity.
Today, more than 23 million veterans walk among us. Nearly 3 million receive disability compensation, and many more owe their lives to an anonymous corpsman or medic. Millions of Americans and their families are profoundly grateful. - Scott McGaugh, Battlefield Angels: Saving Lives from Valley Forge to Afghanistan
With thorns in the inner world there will always be roses in the outer world, in law-able compensation. - G.I. Gurdjieff
FORGETFULNESS, n. A gift of God bestowed upon doctors in compensation for their destitution of conscience. - Ambrose Bierce
Those who claim to be hurt by words must be led to expect nothing as compensation. Otherwise, once they learn they can get something by claiming to be hurt, they will go into the business of being offended. - Jonathan Rauch
Hatred has its pleasures. It is therefore often the compensation bywhich a frightened man reimburses himself for the miseries of Fear. The more he fears, the more he will hate. - Screwtape - C.S. Lewis