What we have to discover for ourselves leaves behind in our mind a pathway that can be used on another occasion.

The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.

One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.

Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.

If there were only turnips and potatoes in the world, someone would complain that plants grow the wrong way.

Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.

To read means to borrow; to create out of one s readings is paying off one's debts.

Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.

He who understands the wise is wise already.

Whether you are at play in the fields of the Lord or standing next to home plate squinting at the popping pitcher, that sudden, immediate knowing can also help you envision the outcome.

I don’t care what you meant to do. I really don’t.I only care about what you actually do. That’s important. The rest of it is just a bunch of bull shit.---

Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.

Make no mistake: this is a repeal and a replace of Obamacare, make no mistake about it. Make no mistake.

Jesus was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor. And perhaps they should understand the role of a community organizer is to help people in distress.

But, for instance, when I was awfully young, I read all the Oz books. They were an enormous influence on me.

It is a peculiar part of the good photographer's adventure to know where luck is most likely to lie in the stream, to hook it, and to bring it in without unfair play and without too much subduing it.

No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.

You can't make a movie for everybody. You can't go into it trying to alienate people, but you have to assume that you're going to.