It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living.

You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government.

Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.

Words dazzle and deceive because they are mimed by the face. But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare.

The past attracts me, the present frightens me, because the future is death.

A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.

Of all the passions, the only one that seems respectable to me is the passion for food

There is only one good thing in life, and that is love. And how you misunderstand it! how you spoil it! You treat it as something solemn like a sacrament, or something to be bought, like a dress.

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.

Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck.

Whether we are describing a king, an assassin, a thief, an honest man, a prostitute, a nun, a young girl, or a stallholder in a market, it is always ourselves that we are describing.

...every vertebrae on his back was a prayer bead under my hands.

Rebuke them that violates the principles of kingdom of God

Time to make herself scarce because, hell, she didn’t want to pass that thunderhead on her way out.

If differences can be hidden, perhaps there aren't differences at all

The ***** is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent.

So easily do weak men put in high positions turn villains.

It is not how much you have, but with whom you enjoy it.

When I step onto the court, I'm ready to play. If you're going up against me, you'd better be ready. If you're not going to compete, I will dominate you.

We're not going to have a perfect batting average and it's important that Americans understand that.

The government has become a mechanism for distributing largess, and your census form is your ticket.