Without the right to defend yourself--and the right to possesss the means to do it--all other supposed rights are so much hot air.

A man who can laugh at himself is truly blessed, for he will never lack for amusement.

History is a story of violence at work. It all comes down to the old saw that, however much you can gain with a kind word, you can gain more with a kind word and a gun.

If the devil ever raised a garden, the Everglades was it.

The greatest tragedy that can befall a man is never to know who he really is.

Violence is the most elemental truth of life. It's the central shaper of history, the ultimate determiner of whether A or B is going to get his way.

He would know a number of grown women in his life who did not possess even a small portion of the grace his middle sister owned at the age of fourteen.

The only things you can ever truly own cannot be bought with money.

Some of us are always in the borderlands no matter where we might be on the map.

History is a record of human nature in action.

Pride has traditionally been regarded as the foremost of the Seven Deadly Sins, but it has rather obviously been overtaken by Greed.

There no such thing as something! Why? Because everything's already turning into something else!

It's not a sign of creativity to have sixty-five ideas for one problem. It's just a waste of energy.

While I try to keep my fitness regimen consistent, during awards season, I'm especially conscious of what I'll be wearing and plan my workouts accordingly.

I'm very comfortable in the U.S. and Europe, but I feel completely out of place in the rest of the world, mostly because I never spent time outside the U.S. and Europe until I was in my 30s.

If we do not share our stories and shine a light on inequities, things will not change.

The defense budget is more than a piggy bank for people who want to get busy beating swords into pork barrels.

I am not fond of the idea of my shrubberies being always approachable.

But emotion cannot be buried by words, though it can be aroused by them.

Every man should let out all the length of all the reigns; should find or make a frank and healthy expression of what force and meaning is in him.

a committee, of course, exists for the purpose of damping enthusiasms.