John Quotes
In fact, most deaths are not tragic. Few people die because of a flaw in character, which is the essential element of tragedy. They just die.
Our assessment of socio-economic worth is largely a sham. We scientists should not lend ourselves to it - though we routinely do. We should, instead, insist on applying the criterion of quality.
Discoveries that are anticipated are seldom the most valuable. ... It's the scientist free to pilot his vessel across hidden shoals into open seas who gives the best value.
I sometimes go back to walk through the ghostly remains of Sutton Place where the rude, new buildings stand squarely in one another's river views.
Love with its paraphernalia of sexuality, jealousy, nostalgia and exaltation was easier to reognize than friendship, which seemed to have (excepting athletic equipment) no paraphernalia at all.
The organizations of men, like men themselves, seem subject to deafness, near-sightedness, lameness, and involuntary cruelty. We seem tragically unable to help one another, to understand one another.
The irony of Christmas is always upon the poor in heart; the mystery of the solstice is always upon the rest of us.
In the Old Testament, God dealt with His people as a nation...Their relationship was completely external. But in the New Covenant, the presence of God moved out of the temple and into our hearts.
Asian American men, Asian men have been basically eunuchs in American cinema and television.
It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their conviction. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their convictions.
What has any poet to trust more than the feel of the thing? Theory concerns him only until he picks up his pen, and it begins to concern him again as soon as he lays it down.
While you're being creative, nothing is wrong. There's no such thing as a mistake, and any drivel may lead to the breakthrough.
My mum died about three years ago at the age of 101, and just towards the end, as she began to run out of energy, she did actually stop trying to tell me what to do most of the time.
Once we've made a decision, we are efficient only if we go through with it decisively, undistracted by doubts about its correctness.
I would say that I began with a very edgy, very driven personality and after a sufficient amount of therapy over many, many years, I managed to become rather relaxed and happy.
I find the Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you.
Basil Fawlty was an easy character for me. For some reason, portraying a mean, uptight, incompetent bully comes naturally to me.
The thrill I got discovering Buster Keaton when I was growing up was so exciting. He was one of the greats.
When you've been doing comedy for forty years, you really do know most of the jokes. And even if you don't know a specific joke, you can pretty much guess what it's going to be.
Naturally, people's image is of a performer, but the reality of it is the writing for me has always been the most important thing and the most rewarding thing.
Some books accrete things to themselves like a magnet. The writer risks sterility by subjecting the mysterious power of imagination to the devices of mere comprehension.
When you hear that your neighbor or friend has reproached you in your absence or presence, then show love and praise him.
Verse is a mechanism by which we can create interpretative illusions suggesting profoundities of response and understanding which far exceed the engagement or research of the writer.
We must bear in recollection that the sentiment of the picture is that of solemnity, not gaiety & nothing garish, but the contrary - yet it must be bright, clear, alive fresh, and all the front seen.
Custodial education does not have as its objective the education of youth but rather social control over them. It suppresses rather than stimulates their intellectual and physical energies.
Just as outlawing alcohol did not work in the 1920s, current attempts to prohibit online gambling will not work, either.
We must ensure that these acts of terror do not accomplish in a slow burn what the fires of the World Trade Center and Pentagon could not - subversively destroying the foundation of our democracy.
Some of the ideas that come from the fringe of the far right are just so implausible that it is hard to take those ideas seriously.
The Republicans claim they are for strengthening Pell grants when the truth is that over the last four years, their legislation has done the exact opposite.
The Republicans have chosen to neglect young Americans who need assistance with the costs of higher education.
You become a great composer when you win a Pulitzer. But I think that now it's a completely meaningless award.
I find respect for a mediocre British composer, as opposed to a really good American, ridiculous because they automatically respect a composer if he's from England.
I'm glad I won it because when I grew up the Pulitzer was the award that every composer wanted and I was like that too.