Some persons are so devotional they have not one bit of true religion in them.

Art is a reality, not a definition; inasmuch as it approaches a reality, it approaches perfection, and inasmuch as it approaches a mere definition, it is imperfect and untrue.

When a man is no longer anxious to do better than well, he is done for.

Temperance in everything is requisite for happiness.

There surely is in human nature an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of all the evil.

Fortunately for serious minds, a bias recognized is a bias sterilized.

The safest principle through life, instead of reforming others, is to set about perfecting yourself.

Genius is nothing more than common faculties refined to a greater intensity. There are no astonishing ways of doing astonishing things. All astonishing things are done by ordinary materials.

Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence.

All government is an evil, but, of the two form's of that evil, democracy or monarchy, the sounder is monarchy; the more able to do its will, democracy.

The only legitimate artists in England are the architects.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

At the heart of the matter is a battle between wish and fear. Fear generally proves stronger than a wish, but it leaves a taste of disappointment on the tongue.

God doesn't want people to do what they think is best: he wants them to do what he knows is best, and no amount of reasoning and intellectualizing will discover that.

Often morality defines our inner philosophy.

I couldn't decide what kind of person she was, whether she was one of those insects that look exactly like wasps but aren't . . . I just wanted to know if she would sting.

Nature is slow, but sure; she works no faster than need be; she is the tortoise that wins the race by her perseverance.

There is only one plot-things are not what they seem.

Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see.

It's weird talking about projects as an actor because you're so in them. I would prefer to write a paper and deliver it to everyone via e-mail.

When you have an economically unequal society, you end up with huge swaths of society that are disposable, basically.