I read my own books sometimes to cheer me when it is hard to write and then I remember that it was always difficult and how nearly impossible it was sometimes.

If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing.

Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you quit, try.

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.

Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.

Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry: Worry never fixes anything.

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.

I drink to make other people more interesting.

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.

Nothing but your choices define your true intelligence.

You cannot con an honest man.

It is a barren kind of criticism which tells you what a thing is not.

The greatest geniuses have always attributed everything to God, as if conscious of being possessed of a spark of His divinity.

Oh, Ma, you're looking at all the trees, and I'm not even in the forest.

Honestly, I was a good kid but I figured out pretty early that I had a gift for making people laugh. I wanted to entertain and when that happens you tend to get yourself in trouble in class.

Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc., at times before they're worn out and times - and this is the worst of all - before we have new ones.

It is the crushed grape that gives out the blood-red wine: it is the suffering soul that breathes the sweetest melodies.

At age 11, I went to a Jewish school. I speak Yiddish. I'm Church of England Protestant. My father was Catholic, and my mother was Protestant. My wife is a Muslim.

There is so much we can do to render service, to make a difference in the world - no matter how large or small our circle of influence.