It is the character of a brave and resolute man not to be ruffled by adversity and not to desert his post.

Politicians are not born; they are excreted.

Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but poorer still is the nation that having heroes, fails to remember and honor them.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labor; read as one goes in; read as one goest out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead.

We learn nothing from history except that we learn nothing from history.

It is not enough to acquire wisdom, it is necessary to employ it.

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.

Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

At home I am a man, at work I am a machine.

Freedom of being alone is intoxicating.

A man who piously shuts himself up to meditate upon the sin of wickedness and to keep it fresh in his mind joins a brotherhood of awful examples.

When I am in pain, I must know that beauty always has been and always will be. This is as close to eternity as I need to be.

If we never felt sorrow, we'd never recognize bliss.

I've burned my own house down, the torch is in my hand.Now I'll burn down the house of anyone who wants to follow me.

I think that there was a fad where everyone said, "I want you to create a signature step for my artist." The thing is, for me, music creates the step. The artist commands the step, you know?

Democracy still has a real hope and chance in Iraq, and true freedom in this country would be the greatest testament to those who gave their lives for it

To play is to listen to the imperative inner force that wants to take form and be acted out without reason.

...only the unscrupulous or shortsighted can defend pollution and degradation of the countryside.