Never speak to an invalid from behind, nor from the door, nor from any distance from him, nor when he is doing anything. The official politeness of servants in these things is so grateful to invalids, that many prefer, without knowing why, having none but servants about them.

Parents and teachers, learn to listen, then listen to learn from children.

I would never do a commercial if I thought it was offensive to anyone.

I don’t do any vulgar movements.

If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.

You pity the fool because you don’t want to beat up a fool! You know, pity is between sorry and mercy. See, if you pity him, you know, you won’t have to beat him up. So that’s why I say fools, you gotta give another chance because they don’t know no better. That’s why I pity them!

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

What air is to the body, to feel understood is to the heart.

We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.

Technology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings.

There are some people, you know, they think the way to be a big man is to shout and stomp and raise hell-and then nothing ever really happens. I’m not like that I never shoot blanks.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place. Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm 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.

The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.

I look after people.

I promised myself that I would write as well as I can, tell the truth, not to tell everything I know, but to make sure that everything I tell is true, as I understand it. And to use the eloquence which my language affords me.

I don’t have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.

We’ve fallen into a trap of ever-widening orbits of contact, and there is a total disregard for the present moment.

I can unload my opinion on anybody at anytime.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

I’ve never had a divorce, but I’ve seen so many of my friends, my sister, my family go through that stuff, so I try to write for the people that can’t write about it. I take on their sorrow, so I’m able to kind of express it, or their joy.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

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

For, if a good speaker, never so eloquent, does not see into the fact, and is not speaking the truth of that – is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

Never explain – your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.

Many parents and teachers have become irritated to the point of distraction at the way the weed-style growth of ‚like‘ has spread through the idiom of the young. And it’s true that in some cases the term has become simultaneously a crutch and a tic, driving out the rest of the vocabulary as candy expels vegetables.

Encouragement to others is something everyone can give. Somebody needs what you have to give. It may not be your money; it may be your time. It may be your listening ear. It may be your arms to encourage. It may be your smile to uplift. Who knows?

How can we help President Obama?

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

These days, children can text on their cell phone all night long, and no one else is seeing that phone. You don’t know who is calling that child.

I could talk all day, T stands for talking, T stands for tender, T stands for things that don’t even rhyme with T.

I am for people. I can’t help it.

In order to have friends, you must first be one.

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.

If he invited you out, he’s got to pay.

Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

Style is that which indicates how the writer takes himself and what he is saying. It is the mind skating circles around itself as it moves forward.

We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.

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

The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.

I am sometimes sad when I hear the personal stories of Tibetan refugees who have been tortured or beaten. Some irritation, some anger comes. But it never lasts long. I always try to think at a deeper level, to find ways to console.

Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.

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 who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.

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

The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?

Time was when they that feared the Lord spake often to one another; I am afraid that now they more often speak one against another.

The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

I hold the door for the ladies – I’m a gent.

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?

Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.

If you are ever in doubt as to whether to kiss a pretty girl, always give her the benefit of the doubt.