It has been said that good prose should resemble the conversation of a well-bred man.

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

Sordid things, for the most part, are what make human beings, my father included, move. That's what it is to be human, I'm afraid.

This was the first piece to the whole story—the beginning.

Only the innocent know the peace of untroubled sleep. Confess sins, and you will sleep like a newborn babe.

Light is a masterpiece, but is of little value if you are blind.

My girlfriend is much better than I am at working hard then resting, and she demands that from me, too. She insists on having time when we don't do anything. We leave the housework and watch a movie.

We hear wonderful stories about some masters who can walk on water and do all kinds of great things. But the real power of the teacher is to transmit power and knowledge directly to an individual.

The U.S. was the immigration country of choice even for alien jellyfish things that turned humans into scary monsters. It made you proud, really.

Go moan for man. It's the pathos of people that gets us down, all the lovers in this dream.

Each moment of every day is new and then it vanishes. Where is that day? Where is that moment?

Leadership is defined by results not attributes.