Frank Zappa was one of the gods of the Czech underground, I thought of him as a friend. Whenever I feel like escaping from the world of the Presidency, I think of him.

It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.

Follow the man who seeks the truth; run from the man who has found it.

Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.

Nothing is more powerful than individuals acting out of their own conscience.

Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.

Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy will function properly.

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

This is a confusing and uncertain period, when a thousand wise words can go completely unnoticed, and one thoughtless word can provoke an utterly nonsensical furor.

We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality.

There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight.

Poetry frees the soul of its burdens through pure expressions. -

An axe at home saves hiring a carpenter.

In the end, I must proclaim that no good can be achieved of false means. For the substance of our existence is not in the achievement, but in the method.

The Internet is a fantastic, strange place where you can write an open letter and be reasonably assured that people are going to read it.

As we get older, it's important for us to help hand back some of what we've gained as we've grown older. It should be one of your responsibilities - it's almost like being a mentor.

Better to love God and die unknown than to love the world and be a hero.

The one thing that reconciles me to the fact of being a woman is the reflection that it delivers me from the necessity of being married to one.

My children's books are written on the belief that every child has a talent and a passion. Each story unfolds into an adventure of nurturing that confidence until a passion blooms.

I don't live in the papal residence. I live in a simple apartment behind the Vatican gas station.

Everybody knows full well my passion about defeating Barack Obama. Over my dead body would I vote for Barack Obama.