Religion enables us to ignore nothingness and get on with the jobs of life.

We are most alive when we're in love.

Life is a nacho. It can be yummy-crunchy or squishy-yucky. It just depends on how long it takes for you to start eating it.

Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.

You cannot help but learn more as take the world into your hands. Take it up reverently, for it is and old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it.

A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world.

Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went.

The scissors cut the long-grown hair; The razor scrapes the remnant fuzz. Small-jawed, weak-chinned, big-eyed, I stare At the forgotten boy I was.

It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you.

Inspiration arrives as a packet of material to be delivered.

So much love, too much love, it is our madness, it is rotting us out, exploding us like dandelion polls.

Even in the fiercest battles the Butterflies and Bee's still kiss the flowers.

The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure.

Grief makes you feel alone, but you're not. I know you don't believe in-in religion-the same way I do, but you can believe you're surrounded by people who love you, can't you?

Education is the science of relations

Still, there is something emboldening about being awake when the rest of the world is sleeping. Like I know something they don't.

I loved the seventies.

My rule in making up examination questions is to ask questions which I can't myself answer. It astounds me to see how some of my students answer questions which would play the deuce with me.

A man may be a tough, concentrated, successful money-maker and never contribute to his country anything more than a horrible example.

You don't quit because you happen to be behind. You want to see how you do. And who knows? Maybe somebody will stumble.

Fame isolates people from reality. That happens to many artists, and I don't want it to happen to me.