Trees bend low with ripened fruit; clouds hang down with gentle rain; noble people bow graciously. This is the way of generous things.

The moth unwitting rushes on the fire, Through ignorance the fish devours the bait, We men know well the foes that lie in wait, Yet cannot shun the meshes of desire.

Neither rings, bright chains, nor bracelets, perfumes, flowers, nor well-trimmed hair, Grace a man like polished language, th' only jewel he should wear.

Knowledge is wonderful and truth serene But man in their service bleeds.

There is no medicine to cure a fool!

A good man may fall, but he falls like a ball [and rebounds]; the ignoble man falls like a lump of clay.

Even the severed branch grows again, and the sunken moon returns: wise men who ponder this are not troubled in adversity.

Three courses open lie to wealth, to give, enjoy, or lose, Who shrinketh from the former two, perforce the third doth choose.

Idleness is a great enemy to mankind. There is no friend like energy, for, if you cultivate that, it will never fail.

Kindness can turn the bad man's heart, and fools convert to wise, Make poison into nectar-juice, and friends of enemies.

The pearl on my beloved's neck, Afflicted sore the oyster!

God, he was so beautiful. It was the tragic kind of beauty too, the kind you knew was doomed from the start. A face that launched a thousand ships and dug a million graves.

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

At the heart of each of us, whatever our imperfections, there exists a silence pulse of perfect rhythm which is absolutely individual and unique, and yet which connects us to everything else.

Unlike the actual, the fictional explains itself.

So the thing that's beautiful about the Rolleiflex is that I open the camera up from the top and put my face in and that the camera's all about composition and all about light.

The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think what we like and say what we think.

I like the idea of being a novelist. I picture myself on the coast, the wind in my hair, horses galloping around me as I sit at my typewriter in the middle of a field.

Nooooooo... favorite film, that's like asking if you have a favorite kid!

Shakespeare says, we are creatures that look before and after; the more surprising that we do not look around a little, and see what is passing under our very eyes.

Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble.