I have come to have the firm conviction that vanity is the basis of everything, and finally that what one calls conscience is only inner vanity.

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.

I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.

It seems to me that I have always existed and that I possess memories that date back to the Pharaohs.

Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.

A man is a critic when he cannot be an artist, in the same way that a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier.

I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.

There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.

You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.

In the office, Michael sat behind our father’s desk, clicking away at the computer with his right hand, and making notes with his left. Ambidextrous freak.

A biomass will live with a self-preservation instinct

Intuitive: The word conveys, I think, a diffuse annoyance at our inability to understand how we come by such knowledge.

It is perfectly true that that government is best which governs least. It is equally true that that government is best which provides most.

Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.

Over the years, you grow up, you mature and you see things in a different way, and it's reflected in the writing.

In the America I see from here, anything is possible - especially the impossible.

As a consumer, you want to associate with brands whose powerful presence creates a halo effect that rubs off on you.

Ambition's monstrous stomach does increase By eating, and it fears to starve, unless It still may feed, and all it sees devour; Ambition is not tir'd with toll nor cloy'd with power.