When we talk about mortality, we are talking about our children.

Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty.

One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

I was brought up as an only child, and we were very close. But when I was 14, we got evicted. We came home to a padlock, and I looked up at my mom and she was crying, and there was nothing to do.

We all know we have a finite period of time. I just feel if I’m going to be alive, I want to be challenged – to be as immortal as possible. The path to that isn’t an easy way, but it’s a rewarding way.

The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It’s a battle you can’t hope to win – it’s a battle that’s going to go on forever. It’s part of the human condition.

What gift has providence bestowed on man that is so dear to him as his children?

If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.

To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.

Occasionally I’ve seen children become heavy-handed and insensitive when dealing with their aging parents, and it only caused resentment and hard feelings.

I have learned, in my life and work as a sportswriter, that big-time Sports and big-time Politics are not so far apart in America. They are both a means to the same end, which is victory… And why not? Victory is good for you, and don’t let anybody tell you different.

There’s something wrong with a mother who washes out a measuring cup with soap and water after she’s only measured water in it.

When Nirvana became popular, you could very easily slip and get lost during that storm. I fortunately had really heavy anchors – old friends, family.

I have 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they keep me young.

Everything in excess is opposed to nature.

My experiences in life are getting bigger and better. The more stuff I do, the more stuff I talk about – having kids, traveling, going through relationship problems, dealing with things in my own family. All that stuff builds character.

Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.

This character feels so much like my brother. He has two children. He has a wife. He works with me. He chooses to stay in New Hampshire because he wants his kids to grow up in the school they started with. He doesn’t want them to lose friends. He is his family’s hero.

Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.

A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.

Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle.

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

We care for each other and care about our family, and we are both working towards the same goal.

I mean, families are weird.

Life would pall if it were all sugar; salt is bitter if taken by itself; but when tasted as part of the dish, it savours the meat. Difficulties are the salt of life.

All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former.

There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.

The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed.

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

My momma didn’t clean up floors so I could be a thug… so I could wear my pants down.

My next baby will be my new record.

The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

My biggest hobby is hanging out with my family and kids.

I joyfully hasten to meet death. If it come before I have had opportunity to develop all my artistic faculties, it will come, my hard fate notwithstanding, too soon, and I should probably wish it later – yet even then I shall be happy, for will it not deliver me from a state of endless suffering?

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

I wish I had been home more when the children were growing up. I missed a lot.

One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one’s death, one dies one’s life.

The absurd depends as much on man as on the world. For the moment, it is all that links them together.

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking theres some kind of change.

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

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

My mother was a full-time mother. She didn’t have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences… everything was for her children. I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate. She was the most generous, loving – she’s better than me.

It’s impossible to live a life totally free of feelings. God created all of us to be emotional creatures, and feelings are a big part of our lives.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

You know, nothing is more important than education, because nowhere are our stakes higher; our future depends on the quality of education of our children today.

Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

To be radical, an empiricism must neither admit into its constructions any element that is not directly experienced, nor exclude from them any element that is directly experienced.

We’re all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by nothing.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

My family didn’t have a lot of money, so I worked my heart out to get my degrees. But the minute I graduated, suddenly everyone was asking me, ‚Well, when are you going to get married and start having kids?‘ And the truth is I had no idea how I would balance the expected role of wife and mother with a challenging career.

Life’s a bit like mountaineering – never look down.