Poetry is a whim of Nature in her lighter moods; it requires nothing but its own madness and, lacking that, it becomes a soundless cymbal, a belfry without a bell.

I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.

I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself.

Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.

Telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.

Perfumed and gallant words make our ears belch.

Perugia is my true fatherland because there I grew to manhood.

A high heart ought to bear calamities and not flee them, since in bearing them appears the grandeur of the mind and in fleeing them the cowardice of the heart.

Why should I be ashamed to describe what nature was not ashamed to create?

Angry men are blind and foolish, for reason at such time takes flight and, in her absence; wrath plunders all the riches of the intellect, while the judgment remains the prisoner of its own pride.

If you want to annoy your neighbors, tell the truth about them.

We can only climb the mountains because there’s a valley that makes the mountain a mountain.

I'm always described as 'cocksure' or 'with a swagger,' and that bears no resemblance to who I feel like inside. I feel plagued by insecurity.

Deliberation is not a particular type of speech, but a political act of collective decision-making in consideration of consequences.

Ever since 'Lassie' and 'Old Yeller', I won't watch animal movies. Animals in movies always die.

I'm a badass. I really am. When you see me hanging with Snoop Doggy Dogg, I am perfectly at home and comfortable.

You exist if and only if you are free to do things without a visible objective, with no justification and, above all, outside the dictatorship of someone else's narrative.

I beg my reader to consider the "evidence" I provide for my case and perhaps feel persuaded as a result. Beyond that I make no claim.

If you don't like what you're doing, then don't do it.

I'm just in an unfortunate business where if you ask me a question I have to answer it honestly and if I don't answer it truthfully then I'm not respected.

I've gone from the most trusted man in America to one of the most debated.