Nay, without thought or conscious desire, might not things external to ourselves vibrate in unison with our moods and passions, atom calling to atom in secret love or strange affinity?

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.

If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart.

What fire does not destroy, it hardens

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

The formula for achieving a successful relationship is simple: you should treat all disasters as if they were trivialities but never treat a triviality as if it were a disaster.

Consider nothing impossible, then treat possiblities as probabilities.

The legitimacy of a war is not established by how it is organized but by what it achieves.

The trick is not how much pain you feel--but how much joy you feel. Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses.

The Self-Educated are marked by stubborn peculiarities.

I feel like, if it's supposed to happen, then it'll happen. God will send me somebody special, whenever the timing is right, so I'm just patient.

[Humans] don't just survive; they discover; they create. ... I mean, just look at what they do with food!

I don't think you have to go out and become Secretary of State or be Bono but I think it's to let people know that whatever they do in their life that that's good.

I like doing food as a focal point on my table. It is not like going out and buying flowers or candles, which are expensive.

When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce.