As success converts treason into legitimacy, so belief converts fiction into fact, and "nothing is but what is not.

Pleasures lie thickest where no pleasures seem: There's not a leaf that falls upon the ground But holds some joy of silence or of sound, Some spirits begotten of a summer dream.

Social and political life is a Society for the Diffusion of Mendacity .

Man will take anything you like, except warning.

What if two negatives make an affirmative ...does it follow that two nobodies shall be some body?

It seems to me that, with but slight reserve and modification, we may apply to our departed friend his own pathetic and beautiful elegy upon another.

How often does it happen that an obscure line finds its way into a periodical... is requoted in every book that comes out during the next three months, and "sleeps again!

Shall we not rejoice then and revel in the glorious liberty of extract, and quote to the thousandth line? Shall we not have pages like the Pyramids?

When the error is universal, it is supposed to end. The adoption of the foundling establishes its consanguinity.

Everybody's word is worth Nobody's taking.

It is an odd mode of diminishing one's own weakness to ask a friend to lend us the equal force of his.

So, if I give any credit, besides giving all credit to God, for being totally healthy, it's just my workout and how much torture I put my body through in the offseason.

We must not subject him who creates to the desires of the multitude. It is, rather, his creation that must become the multitude's desire.

Festivals are always fun. I went to a lot when I was younger and had money to go to them. I like playing at festivals. They're always kind of like a big, crazy circus.

I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.

Education was almost entirely a matter of luck — usually of ill-luck — in those distant days.

Liberal and conservative have lost their meaning in America. I represent the distracted center.

Israel has incredible entrepreneurial spirit and a deep bench of technology talent.

God gave you a gift and he deserves a return on his investment.

I don't see,' I said, 'how people stand being old. Your insides all dry up. When you're young you're so self-reliant. You don't even need much religion.

Funny to watch these Senators switching back and forth on Prohibition. Politics is a great character builder. You have to take a referendum to see what your convictions are for that day.