Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for a time, leave us the weaker ever after.

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man's own eyes when they look upon his own person.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

In faith and hope the world will disagree, but all mankind's concern is charity.

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.

The best way to prove the clearness of our mind, is by showing its faults; as when a stream discovers the dirt at the bottom, it convinces us of the transparency and purity of the water.

Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage, But wise through time, and narrative with age, In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice - A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice.

While pensive poets painful vigils keep, Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep.

See! From the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings; Short is his joy! He feels the fiery wound, Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

I learned to play the instruments of war, " he said, "and paint in blood.

I don't write with an outline. I don't often know what I'm going to do as I'm writing. And I do everything by feel and by instinct.

When I die Dublin will be written on my heart.

TV tends to try and fit everyone into a TV mold.

I'd see movies, comedies, and I loved 'Animal House', I loved all the John Hughes stuff, but I never saw me and my friends totally represented.

Every minute, every second, the pattern of genes being expressed in your brain changes, often in direct or indirect response to events outside the body. Genes are the mechanisms of experience.

You cannot become a power in your community nor achieve enduring success in any worthy undertaking until you become big enough to blame yourself for your own mistakes and reverses.

The capacity of a human community to shape it's future.

Moralism doesn't produce morality; it produces immorality.