We should have a glorious conflagration, if all who cannot put fire into their works would only consent to put their works into the fire.

True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.

Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straight forward and simple integrity in another.

The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum.

The art of declamation has been sinking in value from the moment that speakers were foolish enough to publish, and hearers wise enough to read.

None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them; such persons covet secrets as a spendthrift covets money, for the purpose of circulation.

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.

Let those who would affect singularity with success first determine to be very virtuous, and they will be sure to be very singular.

Atheism is a system which can communicate neither warmth nor illumination, except from those fagots which your mistaken zeal has lighted up for its destruction.

Deliberate with caution, but act with decision and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.

The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.

What kind of god would create a world in which the means of survival depends on our eating each other?

The attitude of people associating guns with nothing but crime, that is what has to be changed. I grew up at a time when people were not afraid of people with firearms.

The true purpose of yoga is to discover that aspect of your being that can never be lost.

Sign language is the noblest gift God has given to deaf people.

The butterfly does not look back upon its caterpillar self, either fondly or wistfully; it simply flies on.

The only magic in our lives as runners is the magic of consistency. Not every run will make you feel great.

Adversity is a misperception as all works toward the good.

I have always wished I could learn to be a potter. I love collecting ceramics; it would be so fulfilling to create something lovely.

It is almost always a mistake to mention Abraham Lincoln. He always steals the show.

When I finished graduate school, the first George Bush was president, and I really wanted to get out of the country. We'd just gone through the first Gulf War.