There is absolutely no point in sitting down to write a book unless you feel that you must write that book, or else go mad, or die.

Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

I cannot imagine any boy of spirit who would not be delighted to play a drunkard even to vomiting in front of his Sunday school. Indeed, the vomiting might be the chief attraction of the role.

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past.

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

A man must be obedient to the promptings of his innermost heart.

Art is wine and experience is the brandy we distill from it.

Conversation in its true meaning isn't all wagging the tongue; sometimes it is a deeply shared silence.

The dog is a yes-animal. Very popular with people who can't afford a yes man.

Only the good die young, the bad petite-mort

The essence of humility in Step 3 is acknowledging and accepting our dependence on God. The essence of faith is trusting God. – p. 167

Forget the technique. Hit the guy across from you. Don't let somebody come in your space.

How long would it take a school-inspector of average activity to tumble head over heels from London toYork?

I'm not in the business of changing policies. I hope to inform, not form, decisions.

Devotion is not a concept, not a certain kind of ideology, not a certain kind of act, it is the agent of dissolution.

Cities are not problems. They are solutions.

If one is honest there is no need to remember.

People have been so busy relating to how I look, it's a miracle I didn't become a self-conscious blob of protoplasm.

Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for anyone who has the nerve to even attempt to do music today, but this is just about what excites me.