It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

I have done for my country, and for all mankind, all that I could do, and I now resign my soul, without fear, to my God – my daughter to my country.

I never liked Hans Christian Andersen because I knew he was always getting at me.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

The mere brute pleasure of reading the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.

I’ve loved reading all my life.

Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.

I’m not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy.

Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.

Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated.

Every man over forty is a scoundrel.

Proper sleep has helped me get to where I am today as an athlete, and it is something that I continue to rely on every day.

We are not cisterns made for hoarding, we are channels made for sharing.

There is no Frigate like a book to take us lands away nor any coursers like a page of prancing Poetry.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

How does a nice Catholic girl end up going to prison for a year? It’s crazy. I’ve made mistakes. I have to pay for those mistakes.

The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.

I like the language in Proust but not the context.

It’s that wonderful old-fashioned idea that others come first and you come second. This was the whole ethic by which I was brought up. Others matter more than you do, so ‚don’t fuss, dear; get on with it.‘

The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else – God is in this person’s life. You can – you must – try to seek God in every human life.

If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.

You see, the interesting thing about books, as opposed, say, to films, is that it’s always just one person encountering the book, it’s not an audience, it’s one to one.

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours‘ writing. Nothing.

To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them.

I’d rather give my life than be afraid to give it.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

For me, a paragraph in a novel is a bit like a line in a poem. It has its own shape, its own music, its own integrity.

When I write, the story is always uppermost in my mind, and I feel that everything must be sacrificed to it. All elegant passages, all the curious details, all the so-called beautiful writing – if they are not truly relevant to what I am trying to say, then they have to go.

This thing of being a hero, about the main thing to it is to know when to die.

We have a great group of guys that really sacrifice every night, care about each other, and try to play the right away.

Give to everyone who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again. And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.

Over the course of my career in law enforcement, I have witnessed over and over again the selflessness and sacrifice of law enforcement who lay their lives on the line every day to protect people who they will never meet and people who will never know their names.

Our focus needs to be less on what our legacy’s going to be or how we can control each other and more how we can give to each other.

All my stories are like the Greek and Roman myths, and the Egyptian myths, and the Old and New Testament.

From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the ‚Pilgrim’s Progress,‘ my first collection was of John Bunyan’s works in separate little volumes.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor.

I read a lot of obscure books and it is nice to open a book.

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

Whether I’m at the office, at home, or on the road, I always have a stack of books I’m looking forward to reading.

It’s amazing if you just listen to people. They tell you all the time things that you can do for them, without even realizing what they’re doing. I’ve learned to take notice of those things and if it’s something that I feel God wants me to do, then I try to do that to add joy to their life.

I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.

Practice radical humility. Take no credit for your talents, intellectual abilities, aptitudes, or proficiencies. Be in a state of awe and bewilderment.

We just cannot worry about ourselves.

Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.

Shakespeare didn’t work at all for me.

Folks, you’re the reason that the automobile industry is back. Whether it was the wage freezes, the plant closures, folks, you sacrificed to keep your companies open. Because of your productivity, the combined auto companies have committed to invest another $23 billion in expansion in America.

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.

I love sleep; it’s my favorite.

Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.