If one wants another only for some self-satisfaction, usually in the form of sensual pleasure, that wrong desire takes the form of lust rather than love.

Not to engage in this pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men.

All genuine learning is active, not passive. It involves the use of the mind, not just the memory. It is a process of discovery, in which the student is the main agent, not the teacher.

Erotic or sexual love can truly be love if it is not selfishly sexual or lustful.

Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.

One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian.

More consequences for thought and action follow the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other basic question.

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.

A good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser.

To agree without understanding is inane. To disagree without understanding is impudent.

The ultimate end of education is happiness or a good human life, a life enriched by the possession of every kind of good, by the enjoyment of every type of satisfaction.

Very few great artists feel the giant agony of the world.

I think with movies I am really connecting to the Joseph Campbell idea of the collective unconscious.

When I was a child, if someone had talked to me about buying water, I would have thought it was a joke.

The brain has a quality referred to as plasticity. The ability to form new neural pathways even into very old age. The brain is fluid, flexible and incredibly adaptable to new experiences.

Honey isn't really that good for you.

I think that you can say something in one line with a look that you might need three lines on a page for normally.

If the customer loves you, the government will have to love you.

...black music is a group music. That's why I don't like doing a solo saxophone thing: My feeling stems from rhythm, I really have to feel that rhythmic thing happening.

The first time I remember really being excited about a book was The Count of Monte Cristo.

The trouble with radicals is that they only read radical literature, and the trouble with conservatives is that they don't read anything