Opera: I like it, except for all those howling sopranos and caterwauling tenors. (Why can't tenors sing like men?)

To the intelligent man or woman, life appears infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question.

The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.

Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

Civilization is a youth with a molotov cocktail in his hand. Culture is the Soviet tank or L.A. cop that guns him down.

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.

There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California.

Men cannot give a meaning to history that they themselves lack, nor can they honor a past which indicts them for their present failures.

A God made by man undoubtedly has need of man to make himself known to man.

I feel like good music comes and goes in waves.

Nasturtiums, who colored you, you wonderful, glowing things? You must have been fashioned out of summer sunsets.

A plate is distasteful to a cat, a newspaper still worse; they like to eat sticky pieces of meat sitting on a cushioned chair or a nice Persian rug.

I couldn't have gotten this far without my beautiful parents. I'm also very lucky to have the best friends that I do.

My biggest mistake was my best lesson... you don't learn anything when everything is going perfectly.

If you're interested in a book that will steadily grow and sell for a very long time, I promise you I will give you that.

I have stopped sleeping inside. A house is too small, too confining. I want the whole world, and the stars too.

You look at a star for two reasons, because it is luminous, and because it is impenetrable. You have beside you a sweeter radiance and a greater mystery, woman.