No great talker ever did any great thing yet, in this world.

The longest absence is less perilous to love than the terrible trials of incessant proximity.

An easy-going husband is the one indispensable comfort of life.

Emulation is active virtue; envy is brooding malice.

Scandals are like dandelion seeds--they are arrow-headed, and stick where they fall, and bring forth and multiply fourfold.

Petty laws breed great crimes.

Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. They do not waste their energies in considering the good of others.

Could we see when and where we are to meet again, we would be more tender when we bid our friends goodbye.

Music is not a science any more than poetry is. It is a sublime instinct, like genius of all kinds.

I do not wish to be a coward like the father of mankind and throw the blame upon a woman.

Familiarity is a magician that is cruel to beauty but kind to ugliness.

...[R]eal wisdom is the property of God, and... human wisdom has little or no value.

Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark.

If I ever saw myself saying I'm excited going to Cleveland, I'd punch myself in the face, because I'm lying.

The silence was killing me. And that's all there ever was. Silence. It was all I knew. Keep quiet. Pretend nothing had happened, that nothing was wrong. And look how well that was turning out.

Do not throw in the towel; use it for wiping the sweat off your face.

There's a certain place you want to get to, and in order to do that, you have to be vulnerable.

Believe firmly that in chess there are no rules without exceptions.

I haven't had the time to say, 'I'm retiring.' But baseball says, 'You're retired.'

I'm in an odd position because I write across so many genres for so many people and they all influence me, and if I'm going to write as honest an album as possible, it's going to be layered.

I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire.