There’s people that appreciate what I do; there’s people that criticize it.

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

He who acts with a constant view to his own advantage will be much murmured against.

I think it’s a myth that American public or any other public is so stupid that they need to be constantly pricked.

Even with all of the things that are so awful, if you walk into your yard and stay there looking at almost anything for five minutes, you will be stunned by how marvelous life is and how incredibly lucky we are to have it.

I don’t see that my majority opinions are going to be undone.

It’s easier to aim to please and say what others want to hear than to form an opinion and fight for it, even if it means taking a risk or losing your job.

I love those who do not know how to live for today.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

I have zero desire, just so you know, to be in the limelight. I don’t think it’s good for the country to have a former president criticize his successor. You’re not going to see me giving my opinions in the public arena, until I start selling my book. I’m going to emerge then submerge.

No accurate thinker will judge another person by that which the other person’s enemies say about him.

The world can criticize me, but l can always criticize it back.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.

If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.

I do value the respect I get from my contemporaries, but to have Oasis cover my song, to have Puff Daddy cover a song, to have Goldie come along to my gigs – that’s where my ego is at. To have my fellow musicians like what I do, that’s very cool.

The best effort of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence.

The ideas associated with the problems of the development of science, as far as I can see by looking around me, are not of the kind that everyone appreciates.

My kids are coming up in a different time then me. Interracial couples are of the norm. With me, it’s about making sure my kids understand the importance of education and having opportunities that I didn’t. My goal as a parent is to make sure they don’t take what they have for granted.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life.

To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

Writing is challenging work because it’s so easy to get consumed with how it’s going, what’s going to happen to it, who’s going to like or not like it. You want to get all of that stuff out of your head and just let the work flow.

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?

All I can do is try to create my own brand and have people appreciate me for that.

It feels good to have your work respected again.

I always want to listen to people and receive good criticism, but I just don’t have to answer to them; I have to answer to God.

Have you not noticed that love is silence? It may be while holding the hand of another, or looking lovingly at a child, or taking in the beauty of an evening. Love has no past or future, and so it is with this extraordinary state of silence.

This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room.

Glorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.

The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.

Writing means sharing. It’s part of the human condition to want to share things – thoughts, ideas, opinions.

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

I’m always just surprised when someone writes something about me.

All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.

This is a moment that I deeply wish my parents could have lived to share. My father would have enjoyed what you have so generously said of me-and my mother would have believed it.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn’t wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

Remember that a gesture of friendship, no matter how small, is always appreciated.

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

I’ve had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, ‚Your music sucks, you don’t know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don’t know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.‘

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

Look folks, we know who built this country and we know who is going to rebuild it. It’s you. Instead of vilifying you, we should be thanking you. We owe you.

Frank Lloyd Wright… his things were beautiful but not very functional.

I was always very curious as a young man about why older writers who I met seemed so indifferent to what was going on, whereas I, in my 20s, was reading everything. Everything seemed important. But they were only interested in the writers they admired when they were young, and I didn’t understand it then, but now, now I understand it.

A critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

The world has today 546 nuclear plants generating electricity. Their experience is being continuously researched, and feedback should be provided to all. Nuclear scientists have to interact with the people of the nation, and academic institutions continuously update nuclear power generation technology and safety.

Many people are alive but don’t touch the miracle of being alive.

It’s nice, I think, when people use your music for things you didn’t think of.

I believe that my parents did wonderful things for us.

I don’t feel I’ve had a decent critic ever on the East coast.

Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.

By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.

Friends applaud, the comedy is over.

People in Latin America… love America from afar and emulate America in some ways but also hate a lot of things that America does to them.

Plato was a bore.