The greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

Never lose a holy curiosity.

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.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion.

One man with courage is a majority.

Death is the king of this world: ‚Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet.

No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.

When I heard ‚Jesus, Take the Wheel,‘ I was like, OK. Some people look at it as a song written for an American Idol, Carrie Underwood, who is wonderful. But when you’re a songwriter listening to a song, you hear something else. I heard that song, and wow.

I’m inspired by Walt Disney. I’m inspired by Howard Hughes. I’m inspired by Henry Ford. I’m inspired by Steve Jobs. I mean, I’m inspired by James Perse.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

Why do I like to write short stories? Well, I certainly didn’t intend to. I was going to write a novel. And still! I still come up with ideas for novels. And I even start novels. But something happens to them. They break up. I look at what I really want to do with the material, and it never turns out to be a novel.

I wake up every day inspiring myself, because God gave me life.

I’m telling you there is hope. I have seen it, but it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people.

The spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light.

I really want a movie made on Sachin Tendulkar’s life. That is something I’m looking forward to. There will be so much emotion to that movie.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

Young people can create beautiful things.

It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife.

Around every corner, always protect the engine that powers you.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know. And writing Langston Hughes replica poems became me wanting to write like Stevie Wonder.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

A Religion of Evolution: that, when all is said and done, is what Man needs ever more explicitly if he is to survive and ‚superlive,‘ as soon as he becomes conscious of his power to ultra-hominize himself and of his duty to do so.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

I think the foundation of everything in my life is wonder.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.

Nothing in the world is irreversible, not even capitalism.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

It usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.

We have one planet in our solar system that’s habitable, and that’s the Earth, and space travel can transform things back here for the better. First of all, by just having people go to space and look back on this fragile planet we live on. People have come back transformed and have done fantastic things.

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

My inspiration is R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, and Prince – for the vocals, anyway.

Energy begets energy.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

Small aim is a crime; have great aim.

I feel that there are a few things in the world without cultural barriers.

Cast away your sloth, your lethargy, your coldness, or whatever interferes with your chaste and pure love for Christ, your soul’s husband. Make Him the source, the center, and the circumference of all your soul’s range of delight.

For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time.

Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We come from the Creator with creativity. I think that each one of us is born with creativity.

I’m not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.

Hope is the magic carpet that transports us from the present moment into the realm of infinite possibilities.

Anyone can be a Superman, but nobody can be Jackie Chan.

The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

Civil disobedience’s main goal typically is to try to arouse and inspire others to join and do something. Well, sometimes that is a good tactic, sometimes not.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.

It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.

The world has not yet reached the point which, in my view, is an essential condition for the survival of our human species: access by all the peoples to the material resources of this planet.

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, ‚I want to get out and become like him‘. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.