Perhaps Samuel Johnson was a great man; he was certainly a drumbling one.

Herman Melville was as separated from a civilized literature as the lost Atlantis was said to have been from the great peoples of the earth.

We cannot live, suffer or die for somebody else, for suffering is too precious to be shared.

When one realizes that his life is worthless he either commits suicide or travels.

Nothing in our times has become so unattractive as virtue.

Recognize the cunning man not by the corpses he pays homage to but by the living writers he conspires against with the most shameful weapon, Silence, or the briefest review.

It takes a long time to understand nothing.

Writing is conscience, scruple, and the farming of our ancestors.

It is very perplexing how an intrepid frontier people, who fought a wilderness, floods, tornadoes, and the Rockies, cower before criticism, which is regarded as a malignant tumor in the imagination.

A strong foe is better than a weak friend.

Narcissus never wrote well nor was a friend.

By choosing healthy over skinny you are choosing self-love over self-judgment. You are beautiful!

The happy have whole days, and those they choose.The unhappy have but hours, and those they lose.

There's some quality you get when you're not totally comfortable.

Do not let a flattering woman coax and wheedle you and deceive you; she is after your barn.

History is clarified experience.

I left Beijing in 1987, shortly before my books were banned there, but have returned continually.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and tears are only rain to make love grow.

If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don't stop, don't put it down.

So actually I only got a mobile phone the day after I left being Prime Minister.

You can’t always control circumstances. However, you can always control your attitude, approach, and response.