A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

My literature is much more the result of a paradox than that of an implacable logic, typical of police novels. The paradox is the tension that exists in my soul.

I love wisdom. And you can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don’t just want to possess it, it will find you.

I felt like my favorite writers have almost musical hooks in their work, whether it’s poetry or a hook at the end of a chapter that makes you want to read the next one. And I think that my favorite writers definitely have something musical about what they do, in saying something so relatable and universal and so simple.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m a writer who’s writing books, and therefore, I don’t want to die. You’d miss the end of the book wouldn’t you? You can’t die with an unfinished book.

We make the Sabbath a delight when we teach the gospel to our children.

Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.

I think I work much harder on the children’s books. I suppose I enjoy that. I find it interesting that although there are more than 30 books in the Discworld series, it is the four that were written for children which have won the awards. I’ve never been quite certain why this is.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not – silence is the sharper sword.

The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.

Knowledge is true opinion.

After many years of great mercy, after tasting of the powers of the world to come, we still are so weak, so foolish; but, oh! when we get away from self to God, there all is truth and purity and holiness, and our heart finds peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, victory.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

All good books have one thing in common – they are truer than if they had really happened.

Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.

Older and wiser voices can help you find the right path, if you are only willing to listen.

Jesters do often prove prophets.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

‚Mystic River‘ just smelled interesting to me. So I read it and liked it right away. Even the dialogue in it was great.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love.

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.

It is the heart always that sees, before the head can see.

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Silence is the mother of truth.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

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

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know – and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.

As long as the people don’t fear the truth, there is hope. For once they fear it, the one who tells it doesn’t stand a chance. And today, truth is still beautiful… but so frightening.

Satan is wiser now than before, and tempts by making rich instead of poor.

Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education… Without a gentle contempt for education no man’s education is complete.

If I had only one sermon to preach it would be a sermon against pride.

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

Those who have been writing literature have not been writing life.

Take care to sell your horse before he dies. The art of life is passing losses on.

I read poetry to save time.

I rewrote the ending to ‚Farewell to Arms,‘ the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.

Dickens is one of those authors who are well worth stealing.

It’s not easy to define poetry.

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.

It is easy to dismiss the world as ‚irrelevant,‘ or consumed by ‚paranoid anti-Americanism,‘ but perhaps not wise.

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

No man was ever wise by chance.

Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.

Brevity is the soul of wit.