Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

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.

...and I wondered, not for the first time, if some of life's tragedy arose when people put themselves in situations they were not by nature suited for.

I can't leave her now. I like her too much. There, I said it. But I won't say it again.

Physically it is impossible for a bee to fly, but because it believes it can then it can.

I think [ unpopular presidential candidates ] indicates, at least on the Democratic side, that we've got more work to do to strengthen our grassroots networks.

Nothing pleases a woman quite so well as to look so sweet that a man wants to kiss her, and then abuse him for his impudence.

It takes two to make an accident.

Nobody should get married at 17.

I take pride in just knowing how to do things. Whenever a coach tells me to do something, I always try to do it the way he said or do it to my best ability.

Asian countries produce eight times as many engineering bachelors as the United States, and the number of U.S. students graduating at the masters and PhD levels in these areas is declining.

I used to take my short stories to girls' homes and read them to them. Can you imagine the reaction reading a short story to a girl instead of pawing her?