The mark of mediocrity is to look for precedent.

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion ... faith in the power of words.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.

Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.

America is a hurricane, and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate if incredibly stupid and smug White Protestants who live in the center, in the serene eye of the big wind.

I was thinking that surgeons had to be the happiest people on earth. To cut people up and get paid for it-that's happiness, I told myself.

Love asks us that we be a little braver than is comfortable, a little more generous, a little more flexible. It means living on the edge more than we care to.

Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer.

Be a sinner and sin boldly,  but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly.

Have you achieved your goal today? Fantastic! Set a goal for tomorrow, next month, next year, and years from now.

I am mad. The thought calms me. I don't have to try to be sane anymore. It's over. I sleep

I hate to lose more than I love to win.

Emerald as heavy as a golf course, ruby as dark as an afterbirth, diamond as white as sun on the sea.

I think a lot of the best ideas come from the grassroots; I'm someone who does not like a bunker mentality and does not like groupthink.

It is cycling as a professional sport that represents the problem. It can transform someone into a liar.

We have come a long way and we have a little further to go.

If you ever want to get a sense of your own personal failure, look at yourself trying to get across a point that nobody is listening to and the situation gets worse and worse.

Dessert is probably the most important stage of the meal, since it will be the last thing your guests remember before they pass out all over the table.