Every political sect has its esoteric and its exoteric school--its abstract doctrines for the initiated; its visible symbols, its imposing forms, its mythological fables, for the vulgar.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god.

It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit.

Finesse is the best adaptation of means to circumstances.

People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws.

I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Ye diners out from whom we guard our spoons.

Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from birth as a paternal, or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read, and say, and eat, and drink and wear.

Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.

It takes guts and humility to admit mistakes. Admitting we're wrong is courage, not weakness.

If you want something more in life, you have to become someone who is capable of getting more

As an actor, what's interesting is what's hidden away beneath the surface. You want to be like a duck on a pond - very calm on the surface but paddling away like crazy underneath.

Good books are the warehouses of ideas.

While nature thus very early and very abundantly feeds us, she is very late in tutoring us as to the proper methodization of our diet.

I think that the transformative nature of love is why we are so drawn to it.

Everybody loves something, even if it's only tortillas.

Rickey doesn't have albums, Rickey has CDs.

Since I cant write the greatest American novel, Im going to write the longest American novel.

He who cannot overcome his own demons could never defeat another