war is a thug's game. The thug strikes first and harder. He doesn't go by rules and he isn't afraid of hurting people.

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.

It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.

By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea.

Men kick friendship around like a football, but it doesn't seem to crack. Women treat it like glass and it goes to pieces.

I feel we are all islands - in a common sea.

A simple enough pleasure, surely, to have breakfast alone with one's husband, but how seldom married people in the midst of life achieve it.

My passport photo is one of the most remarkable photographs I have ever seen- no retouching, no shadows, no flattery-just stark me.

When I cannot write a poem, I bake biscuits and feel just as pleased.

Don't wish me happiness - I don't expect to be happy it's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor - I will need them all.

You must learn to exist with no religion, no country, no allies. You must learn to live alone in silence.

The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.

'You can't see me'? What are you playing? Peekaboo?

I have never been interested in specific roles.

I do a lot of research on the placebo effect, not just in depression but in irritable bowel syndrome, pain, arthritis of the knee, migraine, asthma.

Ah, men do not know how much strength is in poise, That he goes the farthest who goes far enough.

Play is the state of mind that we can use in our creative process to our advantage.

In this case, the government will essentially be run by the people who are running it now. The top level [Barack] Obama appointees will leave by inauguration day.

Most of the villagers were hiding in the bush, where they were dying from bad water, malaria and malnutrition