Stephen William Hawking

Author of the best-selling book A Brief History of Time, physicist Stephen Hawking has strived to make difficult concepts in physics more accessible to the public. His discoveries about gravitation are regarded as some of the most important contributions to that area of physics since Albert Einstein introduced the general theory of relativity in 1915.

The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of the human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I have deprived myself of rest, and health. I had desired it with ardor that far exceeded moderation but now that I finished, the beauty of the dream vanished. And breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.

Anticlimax

“Among the great achievements of Benito Mussolini's regime were the revival of a strong national consciousness, the expansion of the Italian Empire, and the running of the trains on time.”

Climax

It is an outrage to bind a Roman citizen; it is a crime to scourge him; it is almost parricide to kill him; but to crucify him—what shall I say of this?”

Figure of speech

antithesis; apostrophe; conceit; hyperbole; irony; litotes; metaphor; metonymy; paradox; personification; simile; and synecdoche.

metonymy, figure of speech in which an attribute of a thing or something closely related to it is substituted for the thing itself. Thus, "sweat" can mean "hard labor," and "Capitol Hill" represents the U.S. Congress.

Oxymoron, combination of two seemingly contradictory or incongruous words, as in the line by the English poet Sir Philip Sidney in which lovers are said to speak “of living deaths, dear wounds, fair storms, and freezing fires.” (Compare with paradox, below.)

paradox, statement that appears self-contradictory but actually has a basis in truth

Oscar Wilde's "Ignorance is like a delicate fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone."

The more your learn, the less you know.

synecdoche, figure of speech, a species of metaphor, in which a part of a person or thing is used to designate the whole : thus, "The house was built by 40 hands" for "The house was built by 20 people."