There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs.

I get so excited when a song I wrote that’s very personal to me goes No. 1 and I look down and see people singing the words back to me.

With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.

French fries kill more people than guns and sharks, yet nobody’s afraid of French fries.

Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it.

To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

It’s very fun to be the hunter of the sounds. The hunter of the right energy. And it’s not really about if every sound is correct; it’s more the energy – if it hits you in some way, it doesn’t really matter to me if it’s not perfect. I’m still very excited while hunting for songs.

Politics, according to the Social Doctrine of the Church, is one of the highest forms of charity, because it serves the common good. I cannot wash my hands, eh? We all have to give something!

The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.

Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in love.

It would be an egregious mistake to ever refer to me in the same breath as most of the people I write about.

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.

If you’ve spent a long time developing a skill and techniques, and now some 14 year-old upstart can get exactly the same result, you might feel a bit miffed I suppose, but that has happened forever.

Obama has succeeded in descending even below George W. Bush in approval in the Arab world. It’s minuscule, few percent.

I hate fund-raising. Haaaaate it. Hate, hate it.

I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement.

Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.

Starting at about, I guess, forever, I’ve always looked forward to getting older. When I was 14, I couldn’t wait to be 16 and get a driver’s license.

Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.

If merely ‚feeling good‘ could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.

Can people who hunger so desperately for what other people have ever have enough?

Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.

Man never thinks himself happy, but when he enjoys those things which others want or desire.

You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There’s another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

You might say that Lyndon Johnson is a cross between a Baptist preacher and a cowboy.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.

Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

Speed provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

Mine is better than ours.

We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first, rock ‚n‘ roll or Christianity.

What charitable 1 percenters can’t do is assume responsibility – America’s national responsibilities: the care of its sick and its poor, the education of its young, the repair of its failing infrastructure, the repayment of its staggering war debts.

I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.

Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.

A man’s delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.

I draw pleasure in governance, in doing new things and bringing people together. That pleasure is all I need from life.

A live concert to me is exciting because of all the electricity that is generated in the crowd and on stage. It’s my favorite part of the business, live concerts.

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

I am a normal guy from the Black Forest, and I do not compare myself with the geniuses.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

There are no pleasures in a fight but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.

I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.

There is no gambling like politics.

I remember when my mother, Shyamala Harris, bought our first home. I was thirteen. She was so proud, and my sister and I were so excited. Millions of Americans know that feeling of walking through the front door of their own home for the first time – the feeling of reaching for opportunity and finding it.

You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.

I always knew that St. Jude was an amazing organization but meeting the kids and seeing how the hospital works first hand was truly beautiful. It doesn’t feel like a regular hospital all dreary and sad. It’s a colorful, beautiful, comfortable, fun place to live and the energy is wonderful.

No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight.

What an ugly beast the ape, and how like us.

Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!

The Old Testament God is a person with body parts and passions. The Church of England God has neither body, parts nor passions, and is therefore not a person.

When I go to a restaurant, yeah, I know that a line is probably going to form in front of the table, but didn’t I always wish for that? Yeah, I did.

Music is like film to me.

Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.

Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine.

When you’re young, you’re not afraid of what comes next. You’re excited by it.