America remained a land of promise for lovers of freedom. Even Byron, at a moment when he was disgusted with Napoleon for not committing suicide, wrote an eloquent stanza in praise of Washington.

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.

An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation.

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.

We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.

Cruel men believe in a cruel god and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly god, and they would be kindly in any case.

Maybe it’s us who are the psychosis of some massive, all-knowing globule of nebulous space junk.

A woman is like a tea bag: you never know her strength until you drop her in hot water.

I liked being a kid. I liked being a student.

I fought, I fought harder . . . but one cell at a time, panic crept into my body, taking me over.

In a country that never wins anything: in Canada, if one of our athletes so much as makes the final in a World Championship, we declare a national holiday.

Whatever peace I know rests in the natural world, in feeling myself a part of it, even in a small way.

Get the kids to understand that they shouldn't worry about who makes the shot, only whether or not the shot is made

So I decided to make a film about our need to tell stories, to own our stories, to understand them, and to have them heard.

A lot of aspiring writers are all ready to write a novel, but they don't know how to write sentences.

The art of tomorrow will be a collective treasure, or it will not be art at all.