Whereas scoundrels become reconciled after knifing one another, lovers break up irrevocably over a mere glance or word.

It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.

When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt.

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure.

Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane.

In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls.

Love may be or it may not, but where it is, it ought to reveal itself in its immensity.

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.

When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues.

A good husband is never the first to go to sleep at night or the last to awake in the morning.

A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.

Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.

That's what novels are: They're amalgams of archetypes, collections of random traits one observes in other people through life, blended into fresh characters.

Reading to me has always been like having a conversation with people who wouldn’t ask me any personal questions. Instead, they open up their own hearts and tell their secrets to me.

I never really said I wanted to be a TV star, when I was a kid.

Since the big band started I'm just always swamped with movies and things. It certainly pays the bills and it's very satisfying, because I get to write all these big charts and all this crazy music.

To be sure, the United States has profound problems, not least our faltering educational and physical infrastructure.

Democratic nation states remain far more capable of managing the circuit of coercion, taxation and legitimation than any transnational bodies.

I speak and speak, [...] but the listener retains only the words he is expecting. [...] It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.

Next to happiness, perhaps enmity is the most healthful stimulant of the human mind.

You've been given status today, but never forget where you came from. You came from dirt and will return to dirt. You will be on that day as you began: just you and Him.