All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.

The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.

Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit--- YOU choose.

The human mind is an organ for the discovery of truths rather than of falsehoods.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Love is as strong as death; its jealousy as unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire; like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love, rivers cannot wash it away

The lesser of two evils is still evil.

Most social acts have to be understood in their setting, and lose meaning if isolated.

most social acts have to be understood in their setting, and lose meaning if isolated. No error in thinking about social facts is more serious than the failure to see their place and function.

I might walk vast expansesof earth and always be beginningand I love beginningor could learnto love it.

Every opportunity has challenges and when you overcome it, it turns to rewards.

If I didn't write my soul would dry up and die.

The desert is a natural extension of the inner silence of the body.

There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.

For me, the lives of children and teens are interesting - they are always changing. There's just so much to sort through. All of this makes for good plots and complex characters.

Successful people see adversity as a stepping stone rather than a stumbling block.

I think it's probably better to make a region your own, and then maybe you can go somewhere else, but a lot of great writers have stuck to one region.

Burt Lancaster was a very powerful and intriguing person. That essence of what he was, is the very thing that you and I see on the screen when we watch him.

I mean, you know, you're not going to change the human animal. And the human animal really doesn't get a lot smarter.