Do not give to thy friends the most agreeable counsels, but the most advantageous.

There is a strength of quiet endurance as significant of courage as the most daring feats of prowess.

Reason is not time only interpreter of life. The fountain of action is in time feelings.

There is more or less of pathos in all true beauty. The delight it awakens has an indefinable, and, as it were, luxurious sadness, which is perhaps one element of its might.

No man flatters the woman he truly loves.

The soul, by an instinct stronger than reason, ever associates beauty with truth.

The art of walking is at once suggestive of the dignity of man. Progressive motion alone implies power, but in almost every other instance it seems a power gained at the expense of self-possession.

National enthusiasm is the nursery of genius.

Fashion seldom interferes with nature without diminishing her grace and efficiency.

To analyze the charms of flowers is like dissecting music; it is one of those things which it is far better to enjoy, than to attempt to fully understand.

The man who becomes a critic by trade ceases, in reality, to be one at all.

We know the value of a blessing when we don't have it. But we only know the value of knowledge when we have enough of it.

At the very beginning, I was a page at Letterman, and I freelanced for any place that would let me write any word. I wanted to do this so badly.

Freedom just around the corner for you, but with the truth so far off, what good will it do?

Man, living, feeling man, is the easy sport of the over-mastering present.

I think all good writing is a struggle. To write as well as you feel you can has to be a struggle, almost by definition, because you could always improve.

I quit piano and violin because it felt too rigid. It was just my thing, something I fell in love with from a very early age.

Everything that is not forbidden is compulsory.

Terrific! A successful blend of genres, complex and fascinating characters, and loads of suspense make 24 Bones a must-read.

I paint with a language I can call my own... it takes a ruthless honesty with oneself. If one admires or is influenced by anyone else, one is not being true to oneself.