It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.

Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.

Toil is man's allotment; toil of brain, or toil of hands, or a grief that's more than either, the grief and sin of idleness.

Meditation and water are wedded for ever.

I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.

Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up.

War should be carried on like a monsoon; one changeless determination of every particle towards the one unalterable aim.

Purses are dreamt up by artists, not architects.

He got me a cup of tea with honey, toast with honey, yogurt with honey, like I was John the Baptist with the flu.

Man's progress is but a gradual discovery that his questions have no meaning.

It is a writer's greatest pleasure to hear that someone was kept up until the unholy hours of the morning reading one of their books

People need what they think of as a poem to be read at their bar mitzvah, their wedding, a funeral, whatever. And people are looking for hope and inspiration. I understand that.

A hard beginnyng makth a good endyng.

I'm sort of like a T. rex in the world of female actresses. Every time a job is finished, I look at my car and think, 'Could I live in it?

Nobody notices me. Nobody thinks I'm me. But then I look less like me than most of the people coming to our concerts.

Anything is possible if you get off your 'BUT' and STAND!

Good fortune then! To make me blest or cursed'st among men.