When the severity of the law is to be softened, let pity, not bribes, be the motive.

Pray, look better, sir... those things yonder are no giants, but windmills.

Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.

In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.

He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all.

How will he who does not know how to govern himself know how to govern others?

Three things too much, and three too little are pernicious to man; to speak much, and know little; to spend much, and have little; to presume much, and be worth little.

That one man scorned and covered with scars Still strove with his last ounce of courage To reach the unreachable star.

Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.

The wicked are always ungrateful.

Her father guarded her, and she guarded herself; for there are no padlocks, bolts, or bars, that secure a maiden better than her own reserve.

I like to fill my heart with love so that I can give it away generously without emptying my vessel.

Sun and wind and beat of sea, Great lands stretching endlessly...Where be bonds to bind the free?All the world was made for me!

My godfather was a Chicago policeman, and I've always looked at law enforcement as a challenging and interesting job.

The best things in life are yours, if you can appreciate yourself.

I'm first and foremost interested in the story, the characters.

I first started writing fiction in college because I was attracted to beautiful sentences. I loved to read them. I wanted to write them.

The wave is not the water. The water merely told us about the wave moving by.

My disenchantment? Oh no, my dear, there are no disenchantments, merely progressions and styles of possession. To exist is to be spellbound.

Definitions are the foundation of reason. You can't reason without them.

I don't believe in e-mail. I rarely use a cell phone and I don't have a fax.