The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.

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.

The 'commandment' of love is only possible because it is more than a requirement. Love can be 'commanded' because it has first been given.

Some things I can never forget. I must not. Otherwise what do I have left?

My chest ached, my body speaking a language my head didn't quite understand.

Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.

After Sleater-Kinney broke up in 2006 I had very little desire to play music. It took well over three years before picking up a guitar meant anything to me other than an exercise.

The greatest achievements are those that benefit others.

Your time is too valuable, your destiny is too great, and your future is too bright to waste a single moment. Be a now person.

People suddenly expected less of me and I didn't want that. Not only could I keep up with sighted kids, I could excel. I have an intense competiveness that was always in me.

Keep alive the fact that a mystery has come into existence and that a physical being serves as a house for this mystery.

The receptivity of the artist must never be confused with passivity. Receptivity is the artist's holding him or herself alive and open to hear what being may speak.