Where true religion has prevented one crime, false religions have afforded a pretext for a thousand.

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.

There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it.

Music is my enchanter, the seducer of my emotions, the fire and ice that moves me.

Donald Evans is a favorite person of mine. His worth ethic, his attitude and his dedication really set him apart.

I began to work the stage and get the audience into it. I also learned how to have fun out there. It is something I will never forget.

The most important part of a story is the piece of it you don't know.

You can't let the good things people say make you feel too good, because you're going to let the bad things make you feel bad.

You are what you are. Find a way to live with it.

When I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it

Our pleasures are short, and can only charm at intervals; love is a method of protraction our greatest pleasure.

The opera always loses money. That's as it should be. Opera has no business making money.