One thing is clear to me, that no indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual nature so much as respectable selfishness.

It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.

A man's real belief is that which he lives by. What a man believes is the thing he does, not the thing he thinks.

Never tell a child 'you have a soul.' Teach him, you are a soul; you have a body.

If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.

Forgiveness unleashes joy. It brings peace. It washes the slate clean. It sets all the highest values of love in motion.

Any faith in Him, however small, is better than any belief about Him, however great.

No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear.

To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.

It is by loving and not by being loved that one can come nearest to the soul of another.

How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset.

During childhood, it’s about trying to help develop who your kid’s going to be. During adolescence, it’s about responding to who your kid wants to be.

Christmas cookies can't help but be retro - they are memory first, sugar-flour-egg-redhot-gumdrop-sparkle reality second.

Wisdom prepares for the worst, but folly leaves the worst for the day when it comes.

I did a film called 'Puccini for Beginners, ' which was a romantic comedy, and I always wanted to do more, but I kept doing drama.

As a man I'd been a cool customer. As a woman I was a hot tamale.

There is as much ingenuity in making an felicitous application of an passage as in being the author of it.

Just drive down that road, until you get blown up

Yes, I was detained for eight days in Waziristan in 1996. It was against my will, and my passport and money were taken from me. I was not mistreated or harmed, but I was also not allowed to leave.

Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point.

There are certain families whose members should all live in different towns - different states, if possible - and write each other letters once a year.