It's all a farce, - these tales they tell About the breezes sighing, And moans astir o'er field and dell, Because the year is dying.

..we wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes- this debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile.

Hope is tenacious. It goes on living and working when science has dealt it what should be its deathblow.

With our short sight we affect to take a comprehensive view of eternity. Our horizon is the universe.

I hope there is something worthy in my writings and not merely the novelty of a black face associated with the power to rhyme that has attracted attention.

A minute to smile and an hour to weep in, A pint of joy to a peck of trouble, And never a laugh but the moans come double; And that is life!

Only the rich are lonesome.

Poor conceited humanity! Interpreters of God indeed.

All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

We reduce the deity to vulgar fractions. We place our own little ambitions and label them ?divine messages?. With our short sight we affect to take a comprehensive view of eternity.

Yesterday I soared above the clouds. Today I'll walk the earth again.

Time spent worrying - about anything - provides no emotional or physical benefit to us

What's right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity - intellect and resources - to do some thing about them.

War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity it destroys religion it destroys states it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.

I am not saying that Hitler was a choir boy. But I am saying, let him who was innocent in the Second World War cast the first stone.

Intolerance is evidence of impotence.

I think that the coalition that President [Barack] Obama put together to win twice is a coalition that I can put together and add to.

I love the idea that if you build something with enough depth and texture, you can watch it again and again and see new things every time, and that's very important.

Changes in the universe are not in the Absolute; they are in nature.