The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

I avoided writers very carefully because they can perpetuate trouble as no one else can.

Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement --discouragement has a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthritis is different from a stiff joint.

There are always those to whom all self-revelation is contemptible, unless it ends with a noble thanks to the gods for the Unconquerable Soul.

The life of the enemy . Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy's staying alive.

Through your ideas, you open the window of your mind and say a hello to the world.

So many horrid Ghosts.

Part of my job being a leader and captain of the team is not just to play well and lead well but find a way to make everybody around me better.

The need to compile lists is a personality disorder, as is the need to assert the superiority of some things over other things.

Auctions are bizarre combinations of slave market, trading floor, theatre and burlesque... a lot of people are going to be making a lot of excuses or maintaining that they were never part of this.

he cult of productivity has its place, but worshipping at its altar daily robs us of the very capacity for joy and wonder that makes life worth living...

Life is too short to leave your walls bare or colorless. Unless you like bare and colorless then it is fine.

Speaking of River City in The Music Man & his home town, Mason City, Iowa: I didn't have to make up anything. I simply remembered Mason City as closely as I could.

Moses, who said when the Red Sea parted, What the hell was that? I was just going in for a dip! Never got a dinner!