There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.

I believe that the greatest form of prayer is praise to God.

Strength and compassion are not mutually exclusive.

I like criticism. It makes you strong.

Of course you can’t ‚trust‘ what people tell you on the web anymore than you can ‚trust‘ what people tell you on megaphones, postcards or in restaurants. Working out the social politics of who you can trust and why is, quite literally, what a very large part of our brain has evolved to do.

Humans are amphibians – half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.

Diplomacy is the art of saying ‚Nice doggie‘ until you can find a rock.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

The capability of negotiating… is something that means you not only have to understand fully what you believe and what your national interests are but in order to be a really good negotiator, you have to try to figure out what the other person on the other side of the table has in mind.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

I want to negotiate what I’m worth. I want to put my analytics forward, man-to-man, and to be like, ‚This is what I’m owed now. Pay me.‘ And then we can talk.

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.

On TV the people can see it. On radio you’ve got to create it.

I realized why directors are such horrible people – in a way – because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just.

Nature is not human hearted.

It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?

Being politically correct means saying what’s polite rather than what’s accurate. I like to be accurate.

I’m a people pleaser. I hold a lot of things in. I’m always making sure everybody is okay. I usually don’t rage; I usually don’t curse.

Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.

One thing that I tell people all the time is, ‚I’m not going to answer a call from you after nine o’clock at night or before nine o’clock in the morning unless it’s an emergency.‘

O‘ What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!

O God, we praise Thee for keeping us till this day, and for the full assurance that Thou wilt never let us go.

You beat him verbally. You beat him mentally, and then finally, you beat him physically. That’s the three ways to beat a man.

You have to be careful about how much you reveal to people that look up to you so much.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

I do not believe we will have a war with Iran.

No rapper in the world from Jay-Z to Tupac to Biggie has 100 percent love on everything they do.

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?

He who acts with a constant view to his own advantage will be much murmured against.

There is no just and serene criticism as yet.

One might say that our words are a movie screen that reveals what we have been thinking and the attitudes we have.

It’s human nature to blame someone else for your shortcomings or upsets.

Understanding is a two-way street.

Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.

If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It’s a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.

Frank Lloyd Wright… his things were beautiful but not very functional.

It’s not difficult for me to put my feelings into written form. I try to be concise and to go direct to the subject. This is what people like about my work, and what the critics hate.

Really I don’t like human nature unless all candied over with art.

As a tactic, violence is absurd. No one can compete with the Government in violence, and the resort to violence, which will surely fail, will simply frighten and alienate some who can be reached, and will further encourage the ideologists and administrators of forceful repression.

Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.

It never bothered me when people would say, ‚You only win championships because you’re playing with Shaq.‘ It bothered me when he said it.

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.

It’s pretty hard to be efficient without being obnoxious.

A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another – until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!

If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.

Skype actually does get a fair bit of revenue.

This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room.

It’s hard for me to grasp the concept of somebody being nervous when I’m talking to them.

The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service. The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless.

It is far more important to be able to hit the target than it is to haggle over who makes a weapon or who pulls a trigger.

Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love.