There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action.

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.

Scared of words? I don't see why anybody ought to fear words. Words are tools

When magic through nerves and reason passes, Imagination, force, and passion will thunder. The portrait of the world is changed.

I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

The saddest fact I've learned is nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody.

Right now, I don't believe [Donald Trump]. I don't trust him.

Now, we live in an age where we have so much information that we do tend to overload. The Greeks did too, though.

You never find people laboring to convince you that you may live very happily upon a plentiful income.

The blues has been the foundation of all other American music since the beginning.