A statesman who confines himself to popular legislation – or, for the matter of that, a playwright who confines himself to popular plays – is like a blind man’s dog who goes wherever the blind man pulls him, on the ground that both of them want to go to the same place.

Making music is like shopping for me. Every song is like a new pair of shoes.

One word from the Lord is like a piece of gold to a believer, who is like a jeweler, shaping and hammering out the promise for a number of weeks.

It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.

Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish – too much handling will spoil it.

The Church is like a great tree whose roots must be energetically anchored in the earth while its leaves are serenely exposed to the bright sunlight. In this way, she sums up a whole gamut of beats in a single living and all-embracing act, each one of which corresponds to a particular degree or a possible form of spiritualisation.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

Some animals are cunning and evil-disposed, as the fox; others, as the dog, are fierce, friendly, and fawning. Some are gentle and easily tamed, as the elephant; some are susceptible of shame, and watchful, as the goose. Some are jealous and fond of ornament, as the peacock.

I tend to approach things from a physics framework. And physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy.

The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.

If fame belonged to me, I could not escape her; if she did not, the longest day would pass me on the chase, and the approbation of my dog would forsake me then. My barefoot rank is better.

Life would pall if it were all sugar; salt is bitter if taken by itself; but when tasted as part of the dish, it savours the meat. Difficulties are the salt of life.

Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes the pressure off the second.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

The statesman’s duty is to bridge the gap between his nation’s experience and his vision.

A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over… is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen.

House guests should be regarded as perishables: Leave them out too long and they go bad.

A two-year-old is kind of like having a blender, but you don’t have a top for it.

It is easy enough to define what the Commonwealth is not. Indeed this is quite a popular pastime.

An evil person is like a dirty window, they never let the light shine through.

Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.

Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark.

A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it’s not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It’s more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.

I have a theory about the human mind. A brain is a lot like a computer. It will only take so many facts, and then it will go on overload and blow up.

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

There are certain characteristics that define a good chimp mother. She is patient, she is protective but she is not over-protective – that is really important. She is tolerant, but she can impose discipline. She is affectionate. She plays. And the most important of all: she is supportive.

He who molds the public sentiment… makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.

Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

There’s different kinds of laughs. It’s like a baseball lineup: this guy’s your power hitter, this guy gets on base, this guy works out walks. If everybody does their job, we’re gonna win.

My clothes are very popular in Japan.

Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.

Isn’t it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow?

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

Consider a tree for a moment. As beautiful as trees are to look at, we don’t see what goes on underground – as they grow roots. Trees must develop deep roots in order to grow strong and produce their beauty. But we don’t see the roots. We just see and enjoy the beauty. In much the same way, what goes on inside of us is like the roots of a tree.

Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier.

Man never legislates, but destinies and accidents, happening in all sorts of ways, legislate in all sorts of ways.

It is unnecessary to say that Fidel Castro possesses the high qualities of a fighter and statesman: our path, our struggle, and our triumph we owed to his vision.

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

States should have the right to enact laws… particularly to end the inhumane practice of ending a life that otherwise could live.

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

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.

As you heat the planet up, it’s just like boiling a pot.

Painting, I think it’s like jazz.

In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he’ll be there.

Popular culture is a contradiction in terms. If it’s popular, it’s not culture.

Marriage is like a game of chess except the board is flowing water, the pieces are made of smoke and no move you make will have any effect on the outcome.

Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.

Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.

William Gladstone has not a single redeeming defect.

Life’s a rollercoaster. You’re up one minute; you’re down one minute. But who doesn’t like rollercoasters?

A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.

We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform, period.

Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.

The fact is that we would have had comprehensive health care now, had it not been for Ted Kennedy’s deliberately blocking the legislation that I proposed in 1978 or ’79.