We never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it. Daniel Defoe
A man's true state of power and riches is to be in himself. Henry Ward Beecher
Everything may exist for a short while-even justice. But the true state of the universe is anarchy. It is the mortal's tragedy that he can never accept this. Michael Moorcock
But Dr. Smith says, and I believe it to be a true state of the case, that he himself gave a course of Lectures in Natural Philosophy, during the same winter, and that the money raised by them was also applied towards paying for the Orrery. David Rittenhouse
The creative action is not voluntary at all, but automatic; we can only put the mind into the proper attitude, and wait for the wind, that blows where it listeth, to breathe over it. Thus the true state of creative genius is allied to reverie, or dreaming. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.