all mankind, not excluding Americans, are sinners--miserable sinners, as even no few Bostonians themselves nowadays contritely respond in the liturgy.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.

Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.

Toil is man's allotment; toil of brain, or toil of hands, or a grief that's more than either, the grief and sin of idleness.

Meditation and water are wedded for ever.

I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.

Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up.

War should be carried on like a monsoon; one changeless determination of every particle towards the one unalterable aim.

A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't even be worth reading.

I know a beautiful soul when I feel one. The empath in me honors the authentic in you.

...strength is not the absence of vulnerability. Strength is knowing what your weaknesses are and working with them.

More may have been learned about the brain and the mind in the 1990s - the so-called decade of the brain - than during the entire previous history of psychology and neuroscience.

It is hard to know if what you are going to do in life is up to you, or a sum of the contribution of others, plus the circumstances you are born into.

The storms in my life have become workshops where I can practice my faith in God's sovereignty.

I don't belong to anyone.

We've been at this 56 years and ... we love saying that we are a country in revolution, trying to create socialism, and we form part of a single party called the Communist Party.

For a long time, I resisted seeing The Sound of Music, but when I finally did, I cried.

If you go the way of your thoughts you will be carried away by them and you will find yourself in an endless maze.