If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

History is present in all my novels. And whether I am directly talking about the sociological moment or just immersing my character in the environment, I am very aware of it.

It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.

Human beings love poetry. They don’t even know it sometimes… whether they’re the songs of Bono, or the songs of Justin Bieber… they’re listening to poetry.

We must get rid of fossil fuels by developing injection systems for automobiles, which can run on bio-fuel.

I have seen firsthand that agricultural science has enormous potential to increase the yields of small farmers and lift them out of hunger and poverty.

It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper place, than to expand both indiscriminately.

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

I wouldn’t put myself forward to do a film like ‚Changeling‘ if I thought I couldn’t pull people into a story because of all the other ways people see me.

I don’t think even ungodly people realize what a society would be like that had no godly influence at all.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

I have lived long enough to satisfy both nature and glory.

I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.

We just seem to have lost all our morals and principles and values these days.

We need enlightenment, not just individually but collectively, to save the planet. We need to awaken ourselves. We need to practice mindfulness if we want to have a future, if we want to save ourselves and the planet.

It feels good to have your work respected again.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.

The moral disapprobation of society has an impact on behavior in societies.

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.

All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football.

Forces that you might think are utterly unrelated to creativity can have a big impact. Technology, obviously, but environment, too. Even financial structures can affect the actual content of a song. The making of music is profoundly affected by the market.

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.

When I was a little girl you used to learn to sew all the holes in things, darning socks, but nobody mends things anymore.

It is not your paintings I like, it is your painting.

The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.

The darkness is really out there. It’s not something that’s in my head, just. It’s in my work because it’s in the world.

I know now that there is no one thing that is true – it is all true.

I think your values are always influenced by your family and your community.

Although I don’t have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very fortunate and feel a responsibility to give back to society in a very significant way.

If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.

I love to sit and eat quietly and enjoy each bite, aware of the presence of my community, aware of all the hard and loving work that has gone into my food.

The ‚public‘ scares me, but people I trust.

The environment that we call society is created by past generations; we accept it, as it helps us to maintain our greed, possessiveness, illusion.

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.

I imagine that yes is the only living thing.

It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.

Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe.

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

When men do not have healthy notions of the Divinity, false ideas supplant them, just as in bad times one uses counterfeit money when there is no good money.

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.

In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.

No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings; it’s this world or nothing. That’s a very powerful perception.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

I’m screamingly funny, you know, I really am in the books. And that helps because I’m funnier than a lot of people, I think, and that’s appreciated by young people.

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it ‚the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.‘ The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of ‚Artist.‘

I’m not really concerned with portraying this tough warrior – I mean, that’s part of my job and I take that very seriously. But I don’t have anything to hide, and I’m not concerned with what people think.

Popular art is the dream of society; it does not examine itself.

I like working-class people, generally speaking.

Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty.

It’s like a muscle – if you stop going to the gym or stop running, you get weak. The military teaches you these great values, but we don’t keep up the discipline on our own, and we lose it. So wherever you go, keep that discipline up.

We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. The teaching of the church is clear, and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.

I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

First I shake the whole Apple tree, that the ripest might fall. Then I climb the tree and shake each limb, and then each branch and then each twig, and then I look under each leaf.

While victimhood in America is exalted, I don’t think our veterans should join those ranks.