On with the dance! Let joy be unconfin'd No sleep till morn when Youth and Pleasure meet.

There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more.

Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.

When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; And when Rome falls--the World.

The heart will break, but broken live on.

Friendship may, and often does, grow into love, but love never subsides into friendship.

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.

There are four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love.

And gentle winds and waters near, make music to the lonely ear.

There is no instinct like that of the heart.

Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.

Our children serve as the greatest reminder that kindness is the greatest service.

Leave me, and go to another, but never stand alone

Are you what others say and think you are?  Or are you who you are regardless of what others say and think?

You are accountable for your own victory or misery

A large part of my work has been collaborating with composers; I think we've commissioned about 140 pieces now, a lot of them percussion concertos.

When I go to shows, I'm really looking forward to hearing the songs I know. I don't like it when a band tries to expose me to new stuff.

Knowledge is power, and for each level of knowledge, you are held responsible for how you use it.

As I am a poet I express what I believe, and I fight against whatever I oppose, in poetry.

Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of the students.

The best thing to ever happen to marriage is the pause-live-TV button.