Maybe it was the home tutoring, or the late start to formal schooling, or an overly cautious and protective upbringing, but in any case, I never became a talkative person. As an adult, I am not always comfortable in social gatherings with small talk. I must have inherited my father's gentle nature.

For many, graduation marks the end of formal student life - the end of long spring breaks and of thinking that a 10 A.M. class is far too early.

I don't like formal gardens. I like wild nature. It's just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess.

I had several turtles before they were in. People seemed to think they were funny. Now everyone is wearing them practically every place. I think that's real fine, but I don't agree they should go to a formal affair. Turtlenecks with dinner jackets seem ridiculous to me.

Without any formal personal finance education or trustworthy resources to tell them otherwise, the majority of people in the 18-to-24-year-old age bracket do not know how to use credit effectively, tackle debt or make wise decisions when it comes to spending.

Without any formal personal finance instruction in our high school or college curricula, many college seniors who graduate in the red will continue to make common financial mistakes that only exacerbate their debt burdens.

The informality of family life is a blessed condition that allows us all to become our best while looking our worst.

I enjoy nothing more than spending time with my loved ones, young and old, and at least once a year we get together for a formal family photograph.

In Latin America, specialists and polling organisations have, for some time, observed that the extension of formal democracy was accompanied by an increasing disillusionment about democracy and a lack of faith in democratic institutions.

I rise today to offer a formal and heartfelt apology to all the victims of lynching in our history, and for the failure of the United States Senate to take action when action was most needed.

Equality legislation, and audits on gender pay gaps, ethnicity and disability, - within companies and public authorities - all aim to stamp out the informal transfer of power through social networks, in favour of appointment through genuine merit.

A formally recognized equality does, however, accord the smaller nations a position which they should be able to use increasingly in the interest of humanity as a whole and in the service of the ideal.

I remember that - you know, I didn't receive a formal education. I was educated in the Montevideo cafe, in the cafes of Montevideo. There, I received my first lessons in the art of telling stories, storytelling.

I haven't had any formal education. Through the grace of god, I am gifted in mathematics and the English language.

Humans aren't as good as we should be in our capacity to empathize with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth. So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were 'reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.'

As African-Americans, people of that generation felt pretty much if they were going to see changes in the world, they had to make sacrifices and step up to the plate. I'm very proud that my parents happened to be people who did. They were not privileged to have a formal education.

Strange as it may seem, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

My closet is organized by tops, pants, and outerwear, but not a lot of dresses. Gowns are in another room because I don't often dress formally, even though I design gowns. Like most designers, I have a uniform, and mine is a legging.

For some reason I have a visual intuition that allows me to design things in an interesting way, and I don't know where that came from. Because I don't have this formal training, I seem to drift in a different direction.

Being a sculptor who uses found objects, all the objects I use in my work have been designed by other people. So I'm tweaking them in some way by squashing them or throwing them off cliffs! Then I formalise my damage by suspending them or arranging them in some kind of way. So I'm using other people's design in a way, so I'm an 'un-maker.'

Although my art work was heavily informed by my design work on a formal and visual level, as regards meaning and content the two practices parted ways.

At a formal dinner party, the person nearest death should always be seated closest to the bathroom.