If you can't do, you had best shut up.

Books are only the shadow and life the real thing. I believe this as strongly as any belief I hold.

Nobody can make a monkey out of anyone who isn't a monkey to start with.

I also believe that writing becomes worthwhile and vitalized only through a full and exciting life.

How old are you Johnny" she asked. Sixteen." And what's that-a boy or a man?" He laughed. "A boy in time of peace and a man in time of war.

In old age the secret springs of human nature are apt to come out.

We give all we have, lives, property, safety, skill...we fight, we die, for a simple thing. Only that a man can stand up.

Most American heroes of the Revolutionary period are by now two men, the actual man and the romantic image. Some are even three men - the actual man, the image, and the debunked remains.

they reminded me of the biggest liar I ever knew personally. Was a farmer, too. Reputation of pretty good farmer at that, but he lied so he had to hire another man to call his pigs.

Hundreds would die, but not the thing they died for.

Excuse my dress. I was half an hour late this morning. When you lose half an hour in this house, you never can pick it up again, try how you may. -Reverend Finch's wife

Imagination has always had powers of resurrection that no science can match.

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender that is strength.

Mental fitness is served by consciously redirecting our attention away from the constant bombardment from the media whose reason to be seems to be focused on keeping us in a state of constant alert.

People who lose their parents when young are permanently in love with them.

I'm trying to move an aircraft carrier here, I'm not just steering the speedboat.

Action is redemption.

I like definitive things.

I think entrepreneurship is our natural state--a big adult word that probably boils down to something much more obvious like playfulness.

If I had my life to live over, I would never dream