The good oxymoron, to define it by a self-illustration, must be a planned inadvertency.

Whenever we can make 25 words do the work of 50, we halve the area in which looseness and disorganization can flourish.

No one should ever have to read a sentence twice because of the way it is put together.

It is nonetheless the best usage that decides the meaning of words.

The choosing among words is made by every user of the language, and not exclusively by professional speakers and writers.

Prose is not necessarily good because it obeys the rules of syntax, but it is fairly certain to be bad if it ignores them.

[T]he craft of science . . . is an oral tradition as much as a written one.

To heal physically, one must heal the emotional aspect of the issue first or it will resurface in another way.

Strong communities are built around local, real food. Food we trust to nourish our bodies, the farmer and planet.

Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure.

One of the great advantages of only publishing five books per year is that I get to be excited about every book.

All of the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some divine word.

The sun never sets on a Hells Angels' patch.

Everyone says, "You have to work at relationships." Sometimes you've got to work, but if you're working 60 percent of the time and only enjoying it 40 percent...

I have never changed. I feel as young as I always did and remain close friends with Gerhard Schröder.

We cannot swing up a rope which is attached only to our own belt.