I have never thought it necessary to patronize the American people.

I have a hard time figuring out what kind of box to put me in, too, because I don’t know exactly what’s going on around me or why. But I need to stay outside of boxes because then I can look at what’s inside of them without being part of them.

There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?

Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

A fool is wise in his eyes.

Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.

There is a level of snobbery and fickleness in L.A.

Man does not live by soap alone; and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it.

Ever since the beginning of rock and roll, there’s been an Axl Rose. And it’s just boring. It’s totally boring to me.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

People are generally proud of their food. A willingness to eat and drink with people without fear and prejudice… they open up to you in ways that somebody visiting who is driven by a story may not get.

Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.

The good of the people is the greatest law.

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted.

Americans are apocalyptic by nature. The reason why is that we’ve always had so much, so we live in deadly fear that people are going to take it away from us.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

We have observed that, in society and the world in which we live, selfishness has increased more than love for others, and that men of good will must work, each with his own strengths and expertise, to ensure that love for others increases until it is equal and possibly exceeds love for oneself.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.

I don’t want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

I’m half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times.

I grow daily to honour facts more and more, and theory less and less. A fact, it seems to me, is a great thing; a sentence printed, if not by God, then at least by the Devil.

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

You are the universe, you aren’t in the universe.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

I think there is a sense of being forced at this time to look at America’s really large shadow and that’s not all that bad.

Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.

It isn’t generally the case that liberals dominate entire hierarchies. That isn’t generally how it works, because the hierarchies are usually set up so that conservatives fill up the hierarchies; it’s in the nature of hierarchy.

The internet could be a very positive step towards education, organisation and participation in a meaningful society.

If you look at the history of our country over the last 100 years, there have been periods where science and research have been celebrated. They were really kind of held up as heroes in society, which encouraged a generation of people to go into these fields.

Mortality is very different when you’re 20 to when you’re 50.

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.

You can’t get a contemporary story about what is going on inside government, and how society sees itself, on American TV.

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.

My connection with Brazil is so abstract. My blood and my way of thinking is Brazilian, but that’s it. I don’t tend to go back to the past, and although I have an apartment there, I rarely visit. When I move, I really move.

A lot of people don’t like the road, but it’s as natural to me as breathing.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

Science is not everything, but science is very beautiful.

Being a Puerto Rican artist, I support all kinds of projects that are developed on my beautiful island that in some way or another put our Puerto Rican flag up.

Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.

A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But… it is better to be good than to be ugly.

To be honest, there are no problems between me and Messi. People have their own opinions about who they think is the better player. It is what it is, but there is no rivalry beyond games and what happens on the pitch.

If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small.

When you’re writing a novel, you don’t want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

I’m trying to make God more relevant in our society. And I think talking in everyday terms and making sure people can understand it – I think that’s important.

Isn’t it funny how babies laugh a lot? I read a toddler, a young child laughs 300 times a day. The average adult laughs, like, four times a day. God put it in them. He put the laugh in us, but I think sometimes we let life get us down, you know, have bad breaks, and we lose our breaks.

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.