Rascals are always sociable, and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others company.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so.

Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.

Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine.

Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

Love is the highest form of meditation.

If you don't stop apologizing, you're going to convince me you've done something wrong.

All I really need is my bed and my art around me.

I am extremely grateful for my 'American Idol' experience, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

I have always considered it despicable to grovel for your life as if life were a favor. If you cannot live the way you want, there is no point in living

As a kid I was fascinated with sports, and I loved sports more than anything else. The first books I read were about sports, like books about Baseball Joe, as one baseball hero was called.

The pains of hell are not the greatest part of hell; the loss of heaven is the weightiest woe of hell.

I think what we (as a society) need from artists of all kinds is courage, a willingness to explore, and a really big sense of possibility.

If you ask me how I want to be remembered, it is as a winner.