Orators inflame the people, whose anger is really but a short fit of madness.

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.

We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.

That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy.

Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

You should never be ashamed to admit you have been wrong. It only proves you are wiser today than yesterday

The sight of you is good for sore eyes.

He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.

I'm sure there's drama in their past that I know nothing about, but when someone like Juliet- colorful, beautiful, determined Juliet- begs you to love her, how do you say no?

This book had two authors, and they were both the same person.

The fact that Newark is having poetry festivals and peace conferences - all of these things are building an undeniable thesis that our city is making incredible strides forward.

God is only mocked by believers.

It was always a funny thing when someone would ask me my name and I would say "Brooklyn." They would always think that I meant that I lived in Brooklyn, and I would have to clarify that.

I kick kittens. I made rude gestures at nuns.

I had good relationships with stores. And I was like, "All right, I'll self-publish it. But I'm only going to do 1,000."

The art of politics is knowing what to do next.

There are the saints of every day, the 'hidden' saints, a sort of 'middle class of holiness'... to which we can all belong.

A sense of Jesus’ absence might be a sign of his presence- a sign that he’s working already in your life.