I was thinking that surgeons had to be the happiest people on earth. To cut people up and get paid for it-that's happiness, I told myself.

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion ... faith in the power of words.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.

Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.

America is a hurricane, and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate if incredibly stupid and smug White Protestants who live in the center, in the serene eye of the big wind.

Love asks us that we be a little braver than is comfortable, a little more generous, a little more flexible. It means living on the edge more than we care to.

Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer.

I'm hostile to men, I'm hostile to women, I'm hostile to cats, to poor cockroaches, I'm afraid of horses.

It is better to be than belong.

How sleep the brave who sink to rest By all their country's wishes blest!

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.

The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.

Earthworms are far more valuable than people.

If a guy can't handle your crazy pictures, he's probably not someone you want in your life.

People who let events and circumstances dictate their lives are living reactively. That means that they don't act on life, they only react to it.

Victory is about recognizing all the work that went into achieving your dream.

From my experience, not one in twenty marries the first love; we build statues of snow and weep to see them melt.

All the plots of hell and commotions on earth have not so much as shaken God's hand to spoil one letter or line he has been drawing.