It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.

A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

I eat steak primarily. That’s pretty much what my diet consists of. Sometimes I supplement that with other steaks.

A minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk.

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!

How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?

Ice-cream is exquisite – what a pity it isn’t illegal.

I still close my eyes and go home – I can always draw from that.

As you get older, time speeds up but life slows down.

Errors are not in the art but in the artificers.

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary ‚real‘ world.

Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.

At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

When I write, it’s like choosing which shoes I’m going to put on. More often than not, my lyrics are personal – but I sometimes have to put myself in other people’s shoes.

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

The Hindu religions gave me the impression of a vast well into which one plunges in order to grasp the reflection of the sun.

I think that we all know what evil is. We have a sense of what’s evil, and certainly killing innocent people is evil. We’re less sure about what is good. There’s sort of good, good enough, could be better – but absolute good is a little harder to define.

I don’t look at a man who’s expert in one area as a specialist. I look at him as a rookie in ten other areas.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

If you would judge, understand.

However my parents – both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.

Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

There are GMO skeptics more in Europe maybe than in other places, but not exclusively.

Every time I plant a seed, He say kill it before it grow, he say kill it before they grow.

Whenever a fellow tells me he’s bipartisan, I know he’s going to vote against me.

I wouldn’t say that anyone in fashion is on my side. I don’t think there’s anyone on my side.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.

There can be no better grounding for a lifetime as an author than to see humanity in all its various guises through the lens of the reporter for the town.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt that same kind of peace, the kind of serenity that I felt after acknowledging that maybe I was going to die of this TB.

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.

In fact men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth – often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you cannot get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable.

I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense.

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.

What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.

When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.

Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.

I tell you the groans of the damned in hell are the deep bass of the universal anthem of praise that shall ascend to the throne of my God for ever and ever.

The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.

If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble.