Americans expect to eat and stay thin, to be constantly on the move and ever more neighborly ... to revere God and be God.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes 'sight-seeing.'

Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands.

The courage to imagine the otherwise is our greatest resource, adding color and suspense to all our life.

Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.

I write to discover what I think.

Knowledge is not simply another commodity. On the contrary. Knowledge is never used up. It increases by diffusion and grows by dispersion.

Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge.

We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in their place.

A tavern chair is the throne of human felicity.

When I was at home I was in a better place but travellers must be content.

To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.

I think the younger kids need to realize there's this whole forgotten 90s that people don't really talk about.

Our bodies are perishable, wealth is not at all permanent and death is always nearby. Therefore we must immediately engage in acts of merit.

A little oil makes machinery work easy.

Like waves, our feelings may continue by repeating themselves, by intermittent rushes; but no emotion any more than a wave can long retain its own individual form.

If movies are causing moral decay, then crime ought to be going up, but crime is going down.

When I step onto the court, I'm ready to play. If you're going up against me, you'd better be ready. If you're not going to compete, I will dominate you.

Since my earliest childhood a barb of sorrow has lodged in my heart. As long as it stays I am ironic - if it is pulled out I shall die.