When I tell a child something the first time, I’m nice. The 15th time, I start to get aggravated.

You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.

The press, the machine, the railway, the telegraph are premises whose thousand-year conclusion no one has yet dared to draw.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

I guess the toughest things in translations are word play, which can never be reproduced exactly.

The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

I was born on a full moon. Both my children were born on full moons, too. Some people say that’s scary. It is what it is, man, I don’t be trippin‘. I couldn’t tell God when I wanted to be born.

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

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the ‚right‘ thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It’s like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip.

If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.

God is patient with us to become the God’s children he wants us to be but you really can see him weeping.

Children say that people are hung sometimes for speaking the truth.

An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Of course, like anybody I repeat myself endlessly, but I don’t know that I’m doing it, usually.

Sometimes it’s a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.

It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.

I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.

Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.

When you have a conflict, that means that there are truths that have to be addressed on each side of the conflict. And when you have a conflict, then it’s an educational process to try to resolve the conflict. And to resolve that, you have to get people on both sides of the conflict involved so that they can dialogue.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.

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.

The kids are old enough now – I just want to let them be kids. I don’t want to comment on them too much. They’re at an age where I just want to let them be kids.

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.

If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.

When I was in college I did a lot of stupid things and I don’t want to make an excuse for that. Some of the things that people accuse me of are true, some of them aren’t. There are pranks, IMs.

I remember thinking quite logically that I didn’t want to spoil my children with wealth and so that I would create a foundation, but not knowing exactly what it would focus on.

Kids will remind you that, even though you’ve gone down a road 100 times, it’s brand new for them – and that’s healthy.

Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.

Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

I write all my sermons.

Each life is made up of mistakes and learning, waiting and growing, practicing patience and being persistent.

I meant what I said and I said what I meant.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.

The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.

The malaria parasite has been killing children and sapping the strength of whole populations for tens of thousands of years. It is impossible to calculate the harm malaria has done to the world.

First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.

He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.

I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.

Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can’t make head nor tail out of it.

The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It’s inflammatory.

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I’d worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: ‚Don’t hide these things from me. I’d rather you ask me these things straight out, and I’ll answer all your questions.‘

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

You can stroke people with words.

At best, the renewal of broken relations is a nervous matter.

There are a lot of self-imposed restrictions by people who somehow believe they have to fall in with a certain military cant. There was always a sense that we had to put things into words that would touch our troops‘ hearts, not just their heads.

It’s a very good question, very direct, and I’m not going to answer it.

With Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to gain market share in what has been dominated by the iPad-type device. But a lot of those users are frustrated. They can’t type. They can’t create documents.

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.

Parents and teachers, learn to listen, then listen to learn from children.

Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste.

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

Children astound me with their inquisitive minds. The world is wide and mysterious to them, and as they piece together the puzzle of life, they ask ‚Why?‘ ceaselessly.

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.