Often the best way to overcome desire is to satisfy it.

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

Fill your heart with love and brighten your days with color and joy.

Nothing happens unless first we dream.

No matter how much you learn in college, it never prepares you for the real world.

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

I do know when you look at some ballplayer and all of a sudden he is the size of a truck something is wrong.

Le silence est la plus grande perse cution: jamais les saints ne se sont tus. Silence is the greatest of all persecutions: no saint was ever silent.

I'm dealing with my drinking problem and I have a reputation for getting things done.

I think novelists perform many useful tasks for their fellow citizens, but one of the most valuable is this: to enable us to see ourselves as others see us.

Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God

We have to implant democracies where there are now dictatorships.