If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.

True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.

Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straight forward and simple integrity in another.

The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum.

The art of declamation has been sinking in value from the moment that speakers were foolish enough to publish, and hearers wise enough to read.

None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them; such persons covet secrets as a spendthrift covets money, for the purpose of circulation.

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.

Let those who would affect singularity with success first determine to be very virtuous, and they will be sure to be very singular.

Atheism is a system which can communicate neither warmth nor illumination, except from those fagots which your mistaken zeal has lighted up for its destruction.

Deliberate with caution, but act with decision and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.

The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.

He's like a storybook spirit, a little djinn or something, except instead of air or water his element is imagination.

To write a good book, you must read one book for each page of the book you are about to write.

If it wasn’t for all those silver wings spread out to help you on your journey, you would’a been dead or someplace screamin’ in a nut house a long time ago.

Where our bread is concerned it is a material matter. Where our neighbor's bread is concerned it is a spiritual matter.

For a justice of this ultimate tribunal [the U.S. Supreme Court], the opportunity for self-discovery and the occasion for self-revelation is great.

Punk and all that was just an image that ripped people off. Johnny Rotten's a wanker, and that's all there is to it.

I love sports. So if I was like a sports anchor or something like that. I would love to do that.

I felt that a number of people might have questioned my loyalty, but I continue to be a patriotic American.

Every problem in your life carries a gift inside it.

Writing is a funny business. You sit in your room and listen to voices and write everything down. What kind of a profession is that?