Conclusion: better to be a thinking monk than a postmodern thinker.

When someone that you love dies..it's like fireworks suddenly burning out in the sky and everything going black.

People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd.

There's so much humanity in a love of trees, so much nostalgia for our first sense of wonder, so much power in just feeling our own insignificance when we are surrounded by nature.

Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty.

That's what the future is for: to build the present, with real plans, made by living people.

I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language.

We think we can make honey without sharing in the fate of bees, but we are in truth nothing but poor bees, destined to accomplish our task and then die.

With the exception of love, friendship and the beauty of Art, I don't see much else that can nurture human life.

The real ordeal is not leaving those you love but learning to live without those who don't love you.

When tea becomes ritual, it takes place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things.

The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.

I know where there is more wisdom than is found in Napoleon Voltaire or all the ministers present and to come - in public opinion.

People love to make excuses, forget all the excuses, if it doesn't work out, failure is the best thing that can happen to somebody, people are extremely scared of failure.

The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.

The public's perception of your show is what it is, and you don't get to complain how people perceive your show or talk about it.

Most people who have a problem concentrate on the problem. They take it to bed with them and stay awake all night thinking it over. Let go of that problem. Rise above it in consciousness.

Fundraising requires looking someone eye-to-eye and say, "Will you help me" and don't say another thing. Just listen to them.

Happiness ain't a thing in itself - it's only a contrast with something that ain't pleasant.

The Revolutionary Guard controls almost everything in Iran, and this is hurting the people.

Contemporary Democrats are people who can't stand the idea that someone, somewhere is experiencing good news.