We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.

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.

I was trying to learn to write, commencing with the simplest things, and one of the simplest things of all and the most fundamental is violent death.

Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.

Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice.

He swallowed hard and looked deep into my eyes so intensely, I tried hard not to look away. I didn’t want him to see how mildly scared of him I was. I touched the hand in his lap and he answered.

Making money ethically is to be paid whilst solving someone else's problems.

I love playing strong feisty women, I really do, but if you were to ask my husband he'd probably say that I'm very insecure. And actually incredibly malleable, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

My audience has developed so that they come to listen and are quiet, Thus I can work in a limited volume range and explore all the subtleties that can happen, which is my favorite part of the music.

There's a perception that's been put out into the marketplace by No Child Left Behind that schools aren't doing enough for kids.

Preparation for becoming attentive to Christianity does not consist in reading many books ... but in fuller immersion in existence.

Past and future are in the mind only - I am now.