Human affairs are like a chess game. Only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players.

If those who give are conscious of their own generosity and those who receive feel indebted, they are no longer family but rather strangers doing business.

There is much meaning in the word endure. For example, when dealing with unstable human feelings and uneven pathways in life, without endurance to hold you up, you may fall into a pit in the brush.

Those who have come to an impasse should examine their original intentions; those who have succeeded should note where they are heading.

To notice people's deceptions yet not reveal it in words, to bear people's insults without showing any change of attitude-there is endless meaning in this, and also endless function.

If a poor house is well kept, or a poor girl well groomed, there is elegance if not beauty. If good people should come upon hard times, why should they immediately give up on themselves?

Valuing unusual conduct is not as good as being careful about ordinary actions.

Attention is the mind's feet; if you do not control your attention strictly, it runs into misleading pathways.

If the mind is illumined, there is clear blue sky in a dark room. If the thoughts are muddled, there are malevolent ghosts in broad daylight.

In dealing with good people one should be magnanimous; in dealing with bad people one should be strict. In dealing with average people one should combine magnanimity and strictness.

Fishing is a pleasure of retirement, yet the angler has the power to let the fish live or die.

Healthy trees bear healthy fruit.

I feel connected to my generation through the music, but I also fear for us. We're in a very self-destructive state where we're addicted to outside opinions and we all feel like we have fans.

If you're a Christian you don't sit there and worry about what somebody else is doing, if they're happy and they're committed in a relationship.

My success is not due to any personal superiority over other people.

Tact is not a small thing; in the battle of life it is more powerful than a bludgeon.

If Harriet Miers were not a crony of the president of the United States, her nomination to the Supreme Court would be a joke, as it would have occurred to no one else to nominate her.

As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES.

As I get older every year, I'm eating better. As a kid, who can turn down chips and candy? But I'm getting better.

I believe poetry has very little to do with memory.

I'm not a terribly social person, and so I have to really like people to work with them.