I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

During most of my freelancing, I made what I would have made in charge of the cafeteria at a pretty good junior-high school.

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.

Considering their impact, you might expect mosquitoes to get more attention than they do. Sharks kill fewer than a dozen people every year, and in the U.S. they get a week dedicated to them on TV every year.

I have found that, in the composition of the human body as compared with the bodies of animals, the organs of sense are duller and coarser. Thus, it is composed of less ingenious instruments, and of spaces less capacious for receiving the faculties of sense.

Few of us can stand prosperity. Another man’s, I mean.

As a Western, ‚The Magnificent Seven‘ was a pretty good film. I don’t think it was as interesting or as multi-faceted as ‚Seven Samurai.‘

As an elder of the Americas and of the rest of the planet, it is my responsibility to care for and protect, to the best of my ability, the young.

That is what fame is, isn’t it? To get the world to fall in love with you.

I never admire another’s fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.

It disturbs me no more to find men base, unjust, or selfish than to see apes mischievous, wolves savage, or the vulture ravenous.

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

As a British driver, you get compared to Lewis and I get that. But when he came to McLaren, they were doing well and had a championship-winning car. I’m in a very different situation so I don’t compare myself to his stats.

So many people are looking at what’s wrong, and I try to encourage them to look at what’s right in their life. A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.

I wanted to be famous for my music and my talent, and I always wished I could cut it out when I left the stage.

Why would anyone steal a shopping cart? It’s like stealing a two-year-old.

Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.

Can people who hunger so desperately for what other people have ever have enough?

There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less.

Gospel music is never pessimistic, it’s never ‚oh my god, its all going down the tubes‘, like the blues often is.

My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.

Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.

There’s no difference between movies and television. None at all. Except in a lot of cases, television’s much better than movies.

We’re in very bad trouble if we don’t understand the planet we’re trying to save.

We judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing.

Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?

I have more friends in New York than Paris.

What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.

Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?

There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

Madonna and I are very different. Just saying. We’re very different. I wouldn’t make that comparison at all, and I don’t mean to disrespect Madonna: she’s a nice lady, and she’s had a fantastic, huge career – biggest pop star of all time.

Particularly Instagram, people look like they have a much better life than they really do. People basically seem like they are way better-looking than they really are, and they are way happier-seeming than they really are.

In the United States, one of the main topics of academic political science is the study of attitudes and policy and their correlation. The study of attitudes is reasonably easy in the United States: heavily-polled society, pretty serious and accurate polls, and policy you can see, and you can compare them.

Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things.

Man seems to be the only animal whose food soils him, making necessary much washing and shield-like bibs and napkins. Moles living in the earth and eating slimy worms are yet as clean as seals or fishes, whose lives are one perpetual wash.

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get – The Future!

Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.

We’re going to have the best-educated American people in the world.

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

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

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

Since day one, since the first time I touched the pen, I wanted to be the best at what I do.

People should not make me out to be like Jesus; I don’t walk on water.

Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel.

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.

He does it with better grace, but I do it more natural.

Hell is a half-filled auditorium.

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.

A majority is always better than the best repartee.

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.