The booby father craves a booby son, And by Heaven's blessing thinks himself undone.

How blessings brighten as they take their flight.

Too low they build who build below the skies.

A soul without reflection, like a pile Without inhabitant, to ruin runs.

Narcissus is the glory of his race: For who does nothing with a better grace?.

How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful, is man!... Midway from nothing to the Deity!

Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew, She sparkled, was exhaled, and went to heaven.

The clouds may drop down titles and estates, and wealth may seek us, but wisdom must be sought.

Where boasting ends, there dignity begins.

Who lives to Nature, rarely can be poor ; who lives to fancy, never can be rich.

Leisure is pain; take off our chariot wheels; how heavily we drag the load of life!

Life is a sail boat ride. Wind, the destiny. But dammit, you are the sailor!

I am not interested in whether you've stood with the great

loneliness doesn't kill you, but it becomes extremely different when you find it among the crowd.

The problem with promises is that once you've made one, it's bound to be broken. It's like an unspoken cosmic rule.

German readers are much like Brits or Americans: They read for the thrill of it, the occasional shudder down the spine, knowing it's not real - but looking over their shoulders anyway, just in case.

The technical process which is interesting in it's own right but I think the creative process is what's more intriguing to me.

I have always felt as though I needed a weapon against evil.

May your service of love a beautiful thing; want nothing else, fear nothing else and let love be free to become what love truly is.

time stood still. I fell into that beloved space that writers fall into, the reason most write, as it's better than drugs or alcohol ... a high without hangover, an affair without pain.

[Garry] Kasparov and [Anatoly] Karpov have something in common. They both want to become deputies of the Russian State Duma.