Luxury is a word of uncertain signification, and may be taken in a good as in a bad sense

There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.

Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.

Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.

A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.

The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.

Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be still a man.

A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty.

All knowledge degenerates into probability.

It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause

It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.

And my seven-year-old world humpty-dumptied, never to be put back together again.

He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep. Sleeping on a dragon's hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself.

I pray that we bring the sound of heaven to earth

No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend.

I can still write blues songs because I remember everything.

Gentlemen, now you will see that now you see nothing. And why you see nothing you will see presently.

This horror of pain is a rather low instinct and... if I think of human beings I've known and of my own life, such as it is, I can't recall any case of pain which didn't, on the whole, enrich life.

Good music is good music, regardless of where it comes from. I think that's a really important thing to carry with you.

I come from the theater, and I've done a lot of character work in the theater, but Hollywood stuff in film and TV, they've been more leading lady/ingenue type roles.