Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright.

Magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And, what is more, they find it everywhere.

The creative impulses of man are always at war with the possessive impulses.

No man should ever publish a book until he has first read it to a woman.

Better the fragrant herb of wit and a little cream of affability than all the pretty cups in the world.

It is not that the French are not profound, but they all express themselves so well that we are led to take their geese for swans.

Nothing is sadder than the consequences of having worldly standards without worldly means.

Nothing is so soothing to our self-esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to absolve us.

The man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man.

The instructed man is ashamed to pronounce in an Orphic manner what everybody knows, and because he is silent people think he is making fun of them.

Once you have a point of view all history will back you up.

Nature has always been and always will be, as far as my tiny brain can understand, miraculous. Except, nature won't last because the world won't.

All right, we need a way to get into the palace. Any ideas?""Ask nicely? Charge in? Fly? Wait, do you mean reasonable ones?

Lila cringed at the ghost of Barron's words, a memory with edges still too sharp to touch.

The brain is unreliable. It relies on lies.

A false sense of security is the only kind there is.

There is always a secret irritation about a laugh in which we cannot join

Burmese political culture lacks an understanding of negotiated compromise. We have to build up that kind of culture.

FOOD is the most widely abused anti-anxiety drug in America, and EXERCISE is the most potent yet underutilized antidepressant.

we would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright.

But you can't make someone be something they're not.