Yale's greatness carries an urgent need to guard against the fall of excellence into exclusivity, of refinement into preciousness, of elegance into class and convention.

Yale is a crucible in American life for the accommodation of intellectual achievement, of wisdom, of refinement, with the democratic ideals of openness, of social justice and of equal opportunity.

To take the measure of oneself by reference to one's colleagues leads to envy or complacency rather than constructive self-examination.

Professors go batty too, perhaps more often than other people, although owing to their profession, their madness is less often remarked.

If certain songs become popular enough to the point where I'll be playing them the rest of my life, I don't want them all to dwell on the same down moment that I'll have to keep reliving.

And I've been taking acting classes since I was 7.

... anything a powerful group has is perceived as good, no matter what it is, and anything a less powerful group has is not so good, no matter how intrinsically great it might be.

You shouldn't rely on others to help you determine what's good and what's bad. In no time at all, you'll simply be under someone else's control.

I know firsthand how agonizing waiting can be.

I'm sure most parents read to their children to explain what certain things mean. So books are a good way to convey a message to anybody. Everybody reads.

When you are face to face with a difficulty, you are up against a discovery.

In our days of prosperity it is more difficult to sustain a religious spirit than in times of adversity, because we are apt to forget that God who has bountifully given may also take away.

When you're young everything feels like the end of the world, but its not; its just the beginning.