Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.

If the experiments which I urge be defective, it cannot be difficult to show the defects; but if valid, then by proving the theory, they must render all objections invalid.

When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.

I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together.

The death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

History is more or less bunk.

If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

But time has set its maggot on their track.

The intelligence of the creature known as a crowd, is the square root of the number of people in it.

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.

I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.

Men seldom, or rather never for a length of time and deliberately, rebel against anything that does not deserve rebelling against.

No poet or orator has ever existed who believed there was any better than himself.

The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.

Poetry and lyrics are very similar. Making words bounce off a page.

Industry need not wish.

When I was researching my book ‚The 33 Strategies of War‘, I studied Napoleon extensively and I found myself wanting to ask Napoleon questions about things he did, and if was I interpreting his actions correctly.

There is good and mediocre writing within every genre.

In terms of mathematics textbooks, why can’t you have the scale of a national market? Right now, we have a Texas textbook that’s different from a California textbook that’s different from a Massachusetts textbook. That’s very expensive.

It is generally recognised that women are better than men at languages, personal relations and multi-tasking, but less good at map-reading and spatial awareness. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that women might be less good at mathematics and physics.

If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little – somebody who is obsessed by Making.

Anything popular is populist, and populist is rarely a good adjective.

It’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order to simply make a poem, that you fail.

The Army will take its lessons learned. They’re excellent at looking into themselves and reflecting on what did we do right, what did we do wrong.

O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!

The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy. When you can do it, it helps tremendously because it’s a thing that forces kids to read on. You have this unconsummated feeling if you stop.

Dissents speak to a future age.

They might not need me; but they might. I’ll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.

It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions.

Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, ‚I’d like to write about that.‘ Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

A subject for a great poet would be God’s boredom after the seventh day of creation.

I’m the first to admit this whole salary thing is getting out of control. In the final analysis, it’s still about the work.

Blood alone moves the wheels of history.

Stand a little less between me and the sun.

The racing is quite boring, sometimes. It’s hard to see how it pulls in fans.

Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow.

In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.

Stupidity is a talent for misconception.

Cunning… is but the low mimic of wisdom.

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry – writing at writing.

In the beginning of the year 1665, I found the method of approximating series and the rule for reducing any dignity of any binomial into such a series.

I thought Star Wars was too wacky for the general public.

Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry.

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.

Philosophy is common sense with big words.