The crown of literature is poetry.

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

I cannot believe the path to victory lies in staining our souls so black we become indistinguishable from those we fight.

I just want choices. Its not about making money and having a lot of friends in Hollywood; thats the last thing I want.

We might say that psychoanalysis revealed to us the complex penalties of denying the truth of man's condition, what we might call the costs of pretending not to be mad.

A pessimist is just an optimist with experience.

If God, as some now say, is dead, He no doubt died of trying to find an equitable solution to the Arab-Jewish problem.

Every other creature on the planet is doing its best. Only human beings hesitate about that.

There's probably a little greater case for pessimism than optimism. But I do not rule out optimism.

Never forget that all the enthusiasm you need is in your mind. Let it out - let it live - let it motivate you.

It's crucial that I kind of keep up, without drifting into the backslapping land of cliche and lifetime achievement awards.

There are people who have tremendously important things to say, but they say it so poorly that nobody would ever want to read it.