[But] I fear that in the individual lives of all but a few, the balance is in debit - we do so little that is positive good, even if we negatively avoid what is actively evil.

We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most human, is still soaked with the sense of exile.

A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of the vocabulary of one's age group. It comes from reading books above one.

Living as we do in an age of noise and bluster, success is now measured accordingly. We must all be seen, and heard, and on the air.

A mask is what we wear to hide from ourselves.

Lord, give me the courage to change the things which can and ought to be changed, the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference - Alcoholics Anonymous

I went searching in a foreign land and found my way home.

Only his eyes remain the same. Bronze, red-gold, like iron brought to blazing heat.

The eternal struggle between failure and fortune is a fight not between mortal enemies but sparring partners. So fortune is improved by failure, and the reverse is also true.

A big talent steals, a small talent borrows.

As our voices rise in protest, the NSA monitors your every phone call. if you have a cell phone, you are under surveillance. I believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damn business.

When we get to what happens when we die, we don't have any video footage. So let's at least be honest that we are speculating, because we are.

Earth is a place where language has literally become alive. Language has infested matter; it is replicating and defining and building itself. And it is in us.