History has a way of chasing gravity just like water, feeding into other parts of itself to become something else, something larger and grander, until the one pure thing it was no longer exists.

Like a carpenter with two broken legs at the bottom of a beautiful staircase. Maybe I can't climb the stairs, ma'am, but at least let me admire the workmanship.

Sometimes the smallest things are so damn unforgivable. Maybe because they aren't small—they only seem that way to someone else. You never know what someone holds scared until it's too late.

of the few certainties I've come across in life, one of them is that when a person says money is no object, the opposite is most likely true. Money is the only object—or will be.

Mr. Welper, of the few certainties I've come across in life, one of them is that when a person says money is no object, the opposite is most likely true. Money is the only object—or will be.

Imagination is one of the few things a man can count on if he's got the reality to feed it.

My instinct told me that she didn't want me to understand. What she felt and lived with couldn't be shared or understood by anyone else.

If someone you love asks you to give up something you love, don't do it.

God keeps us in perfect peace when we rely on Him and are firm in the spirit

Argot is both a literary and a social phenomenon. What is argot, properly speaking? Argot is the language of misery.

There is a wide difference between the original thinker and the merely learned man.

It is a mark of genius not to astonish but to be astonished.

It's true that most people find it far more comfortable to trust an authority than to have their faith questioned.

The only way to know how a complex system will behave-after you modify it-is to modify it and see how it behaves.

I'm a bit of a Scotophile. I have a house on the Black Isle, so I'm in Scotland quite a lot and think Edinburgh is just the most beautiful city.

All we can ever do in the way of good to people is to encourage them to do good to themselves.

There is no merit in a special talent unless its exercise is of use to others.

I believe that the combination of pencil and memory creates a kind of practical magic, and magic is dangerous.