It is curious how tyrannical the habit of reading is, and what shifts we make to escape thinking. There is no bore we dread being left alone with so much as our own minds.

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.

Fate loves the fearless.

The devil loves nothing better than the intolerance of reformers.

All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.

One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.

Light is the symbol of truth.

A weed is no more than a flower in disguise.

Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof.

The brain can be easy to buy, but the heart never comes to market.

Each day the world is born anew for him who takes it rightly.

I walk firmer and more secure up hill than down.

When you're average, you're just as close to the bottom as you are the top.

Suddenly Star Wars came out while we were on hiatus, and we looked like the old Buck Rogers series, where they had cigarette smoke blowing out the back of the rocket ship.

Don't lose faith in what you are trying to do, even though you will get pummeled emotionally left and right. There are a lot of "nos" to any "yes." And that's OK.

I believe in the separation of church and state, absolutely. But I don't believe in the separation of public life from our values, our basic values, and for many of us, our religious values.

I wanted to be an oceanographer, actually. It's a way of going underwater. I've always been interested in how deep it was, you know.

They belong to their readers now, which is a great thing–because the books are more powerful in the hands of my readers than they could ever be in my hands.

The interesting thing about something in the back of your mind is that it can travel pretty far back in your mind.

To George Gershwin, on refusinghim as a pupil: You would only lose the spontaneous quality of your melody, and end by writing bad Ravel.

Facebook, instagram - I prefer visual communication better than verbal. But I read all the comments, answering too.