Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it, and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.

Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.

Toil is man's allotment; toil of brain, or toil of hands, or a grief that's more than either, the grief and sin of idleness.

Meditation and water are wedded for ever.

I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.

Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up.

War should be carried on like a monsoon; one changeless determination of every particle towards the one unalterable aim.

We are not just tickling the dragon’s tail

A fair price for oil is whatever you can get plus ten to twenty per cent.

I feel completely alone - it's like melting, I am the structure, and I am also Alain Robert.

If life was a piece of cake, it wouldn't be worth eating!

Youth changes its tastes by the warmth of its blood; age retains its tastes by habit.

In saying my prayers, I discovered the voice of an innermost self, the raw nerve of my identity.

The perception of the beautiful is gradual, and not a lightning revelation; it requires not only time, but some study.

I don't plan my books. I don't know what's going to happen. That's why I could pick up any one of my 30 books and I could continue the story on.

Every day I walk out into the world / to be dazzled, then to be reflective.

Whenever I meet people for the first time, I assume that they have a great story to tell and that it's my job to find it.