Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval.

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.

If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart.

What fire does not destroy, it hardens

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Human beings do terrible things to each other and the tragic thing about it all is the way the remembrance of past hurt can rob us of our future and become the narrative of our lives.

I not only want to understand God's revelations, I want to be changed by them.

Like many things, power is like the two sides of a coin.

Thousands upon thousands of persons have studied disease. Almost no one has studied health.

I got sick of the dough and thought I'd go on the loaf.

WikiLeaks is what happens when the entire US government is forced to go through a full-body scanner.

Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it.

Demons don't move because we complain. They move because we speak the name of Jesus.

I prefer to live in the country where it's quiet. Woody Allen movies there are dubbed into Italian.

Your eye is a muscle, you have to keep it in shape and the more you draw, the more you see.