I would write of the universal, not the provincial, in human nature.... I would write of characters, not of characteristics.

All change is not growth as all movement is not forward.

All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.

A tragic irony of life is that we so often achieve success or financial independence after the chief reason for which we sought it has passed away.

What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.

It is lovely, when I forget all birthdays, including my own, to find that somebody remembers me.

It is human nature to overestimate the thing you've never had.

The worst thing about war is that so many people enjoy it.

The older I grow the more earnestly I feel that the few joys of childhood are the best that life has to give.

I have little faith in the theory that organized killing is the best prelude to peace.

The only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions.

Philosophers console themselves with explanations.

I tried to blink back the tears that just kept coming. Eventually, I gave up and let my sight be obscured.

What one thinks finds expression in words, and what one says, happens.

Disappointment is the nurse of wisdom.

As a child, I wanted to be an athlete, a professional tennis player or something like that.

The piano's world encompasses glass-nerved virtuos and stomping barrel-housers in fedoras; it is a world of pasture and storm, of perfumed smoke, of liquid mathematics.

I am in flight from my story every day, and it dogs me like a faithful stray.

We are not going back to the failed policies of the past. We are fighting for the middle class!

I'm still at the beginning of my career. It's all a little new, and I'm still learning as I go

A timeless lesson for a deeply fulfilling life is to discover your calling, that special work or consuming occupation that fully engages your special talents with your passions.