Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

If you do not understand a man you cannot crush him. And if you do understand him, very probably you will not.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

To me, it’s OK to have differences. But we don’t have to be mad about it. You know? And I think that’s where sometimes we get so passionate that we – you know, it turns into anger.

It’s no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.

Selling out is doing something you don’t really want to do for money. That’s what selling out is.

It could be if I fight in front of one person or one million people. It’s still the same emotions.

I’m guarded; I don’t talk much.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

Never find fault with the absent.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

One must steer, not talk.

I don’t like people going behind my back.

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.

I speak a number of languages, but none are more beautiful to me than English.

Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can’t do that. It’s gone, gone forever.

There are few things more dishonorable than misleading the young.

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

An inability to handle language is not the same thing as stupidity.

Silence speaks so much louder than screaming tantrums. Never give anyone an excuse to say that you’re crazy.

One thing that I tell people all the time is, ‚I’m not going to answer a call from you after nine o’clock at night or before nine o’clock in the morning unless it’s an emergency.‘

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It’s inflammatory.

Everyone assumes I practise all of my own laws but I don’t. I think anybody who did would be a horrible ugly person to be around.

We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

Using e-mail, I can communicate with scientists all over the world.

There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

I do not, in fact, use many puns. Certainly there are far fewer than people believe. But I suspect the ones I do occasionally use tend to hang around in people’s memories for a while.

My first phone was two tin cans tied together with string, and it worked pretty good.

I am not going to be a mouthpiece for language that I detest.

Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?

There was one incident at a movie theater where my girl got mad at these guys who were talking behind us. I never looked back there, but she was like, ‚Will you all just shut up!‘ And I just got up and moved three rows in front. She was like, ‚What are you doing?!‘ I was like, ‚You better get up here! I don’t play the fighting games.‘

No man was ever great by imitation.

No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.

I will listen to anyone’s convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself.

In the grip of a neurological disorder, I am fast losing control of words even as my relationship with the world has been reduced to them.

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

To be social is to be forgiving.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

If one plays good music, people don’t listen and if one plays bad music people don’t talk.

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings – words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.

We tell lies, yet it is easy to show that lying is immoral.

I don’t need you to be funny. I don’t want to be entertained.

My life is real.

Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.

Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

A fundamentalist can’t bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality.

The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.

By giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent.

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.

It is curious how instinctively one protects the image of oneself from idolatry or any other handling that could make it ridiculous, or too unlike the original to be believed any longer.

I boldly assert, in fact I think I know, that a lot of friendships and connections absolutely depend upon a sort of shared language, or slang. Not necessarily designed to exclude others, this can establish a certain comity and, even after a long absence, re-establish it in a second.

I’ve sat in sushi bars, really fine ones, and I know how hard this guy worked, how proud he is. I know you don’t need sauce. I know he doesn’t even want you to pour sauce. And I’ve seen customers come in and do that, and I’ve seen him, as stoic as he tries to remain, I’ve seen him die a little inside.