The generous Critic fann’d the Poet’s fire, And taught the world with reason to admire.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

Our love, our gratitude, our admiration for our men and women in uniform, our veterans and their families – all of that is bigger than any one party or any one election.

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

All I can tell them is pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell them I don’t know except it looked good.

I got a lot of support from my parents. That’s the one thing I always appreciated. They didn’t tell me I was being stupid; they told me I was being funny.

In a relationship each person should support the other; they should lift each other up.

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

Barbra Streisand has accomplished so much, and Dustin Hoffman as well. They are down to earth and approachable. I admire that.

Faith… must be enforced by reason… when faith becomes blind it dies.

June Jordan, who died of cancer in 2002, was a brilliant, fierce, radical, and frequently furious poet. We were friends for thirty years. Not once in that time did she step back from what was transpiring politically and morally in the world. She spoke up, and led her students, whom she adored, to do the same.

In all my lectures, I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man.

I like the fact that Melbourne always seems to support their chefs and promote them in ways I find really admirable.

You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do – and they don’t. They have prejudices. They may like Henry James, but what if you don’t want to write like Henry James? They may like John Irving, for instance, who’s the bore of all time.

Stay humble and be concerned for the less fortunate.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.

Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.

No one could have been nicer, classier nor better looking than Dick Clark. I’ve had a crush on him since I was a teenager.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

It’s amazing how people will give when you don’t ask. Many of them send money because they believe in the message.

It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.

When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, ‚Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.‘

I think Pat Robertson is a terrific fellow.

The Tao teaches us to let go of things. Use the 80/20 rule. If you take all your clothes, you’ll find out that you only wear 20 percent of them. Take what you have and don’t use and circulate it. Give stuff to people who truly need it. After all, we come into this world with nothing; we leave this world with nothing.

You always admire what you really don’t understand.

I can take a beginner kid that has never danced in their lives, and I can teach them something, or I can take a really advanced dancer, and I can make them into a professional.

I feel real good because it’s about representing the young world and how to uplift each other and how to push us to be greater and make sure we don’t fall or get trapped or get in trouble, you know what I mean. Stay focused, you know what I mean.

There are plenty of dead scientists I admire, but I can’t think of any living ones. This is probably because it is only in retrospect that one can see who made the important contributions.

Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.

There’s been a lot of talk about Jack White wanting to work with me, and I’ve always admired him, and of course, he lives in Nashville, too.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet.

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.

American taxpayers have been generous to Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

I’ve learned that we all change constantly. It’s rare to find that person who is growing with you in the same way at the same time, who encourages you to grow.

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man’s estate, is the gift of education.

My mother encouraged me to be artistic. It was written in a contract at an early age that I would be an artist.

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.

Things in themselves have no life in them. A car can’t comfort or encourage you. A house means nothing if there’s no life and love inside.

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

I’ve been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it’d be awesome to work with him. He’s really kind, and he’s been really encouraging when we’ve met.

I was raised by a mother who told me I was great every day of my life.

I love artists like Prince, who hold on to that element of mystery.

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It’s the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

I would have a workshop attached to every school, and one hour a day given up to the teaching of simple decorative arts. It would be a golden hour to the children.

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.

No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who wishes that she were not.

It is another’s fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.

I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence.

So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.

When doubt comes against us, we have to lift up the shield of faith. We do this when we open our mouth and say what God’s Word says, rather than grumbling and complaining about the problem.

Most people would rather give than get affection.

Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.

100 percent a huge fan of Beyonce. If I see her, I will faint. I’ve met her before. I just get really nervous and quiet – I just shut up and bow down.

Funny thing is that the poorer people are, the more generous they seem to be.

As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.

He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.

The only big things I’ve purchased are my dad’s heart valve and a Rolls-Royce for my parents, for their anniversary. And that was only because my dad had a Lady Gaga license plate on our old car and it was making me crazy because he was getting followed everywhere, so I bought him a new car.