The first principle of a civilized state is that the power is legitimate only when it is under contract.

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.

The radical novelty of modern science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief... that the forces which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of the human heart.

He has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so.

There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.

When all think alike, then no one is thinking

The press does not tell us what to think, it tells us what to think about.

The news and the truth are not the same thing.

The present crisis of Western democracy is a crisis in journalism.

To create a minimum standard of life below which no human being can fall is the most elementary duty of the democratic state.

It is often very illuminating...to ask yourself how you got at the facts on which you base your opinion. Who actually saw, heard, felt, counted, named the thing, about which you have an opinion?

Through my fiction, I make mainstream readers see the new Americans as complex human beings, not as just The Other.

Music is the application of sounds to the canvas of silence.

The lovers of life, they are children at heart always in their wonder and delight, but they do not grab.

If, because of anxiety and self-doubt, you procrastinate and only think about working, you'll feel more exhausted than if you'd created for hours.

Daily life is the enemy of greatness.

In the draft plan, we're looking at recycling 20 percent of our garbage by 2010.

I think you ultimately have to love who you're playing. You have to have that kind of feeling. You have to have passion for the person.

I want to see how life can triumph.

I found that doing Pilates consistently three to four times a week had an amazing effect on really toning and shaping a tight waist and legs.

I thought The Doors were the greatest band for a while.