Better a dish of husks to the accompaniment of a muted lute than to be satiated with stewed shark's fin and rich spiced wine of which the cost is frequently mentioned by the provider.

A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment.

One learns to itch where one can scratch.

Do not adjust your sandals while passing through a melon-field, nor yet arrange your hat beneath an orange-tree.

Eat in the dark the bargain that you purchased in the dusk.

The province of philosophy is not so much to prevent calamities befalling as to demonstrate that they are blessings when they have taken place.

One may ride upon a tiger's back but it is fatal to dismount.

He who thinks he is raising a mound may only in Reality be digging a pit.

When struck by a thunderbolt it is unnecessary to consult the Book of Dates as to the precise meaning of the omen.

Although there exist many thousand subjects for elegant conversation, there are persons who cannot meet a cripple without talking about feet.

The wise duck keeps his mouth shut when he smells frogs.

I believe language is infinitely malleable, a live being in our hands, which deserves our great respect and curiosity

A free and truly independent press - fiercely independent when necessary - is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.

His pagan barbarity, his explosive and angrily defiant melancholy, his demoniacal instinct . . . these are all echoes . . . of the thousand-year-old Hungarian psyche.

I fully, fully concede that Secretary Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State for four years, has more experience - hat is not arguable - in foreign affairs.

Of all writings I love only that which is written with blood. Write with blood: and you will discover that blood is spirit.

People say that envy is a deadly sin, but I disagree. I love watching a person do something that I can't. I find it to be incredibly motivating.

Anything beats an expensive stack of paper.

I love women being the heroes of the piece. There is just something so dramatic and important about this story [The Nightingale ].

The facts of another's life do not illumine. Only when we know the heart can we know that life. Only the feeling that made the days can light them.

Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech.