A man can look upon his life and accept it as good or evil; it is far, far harder for him to confess that it has been unimportant in the sum of things.

A political convention is just not a place where you come away with any trace of faith in human nature.

A critic is someone who enters the battlefield after the war is over and shoots the wounded.

No great scoundrel is ever uninteresting.

There is a raging tiger inside every man whom God put on this earth. Every man worthy of the respect of his children spends his life building inside himself a cage to pen that tiger in.

America... an economic system prouder of the distribution of its products than of the products themselves.

It is not the least of a martyr's scourges to be canonized by the persons who burned him.

It is function of government to invent philosophies to explain the demands of its own convenience.

To say that an idea is fashionable is to say, I think, that is has been adulterated to a point where it is hardly an idea at all.

The world of shabby gentility is like no other; its sacrifices have less logic, its standards are harsher, its relation to reality is dimmer than comfortable property or plain poverty can understand.

The beauty of a strong, lasting commitment is often best understood by a man incapable of it.

My loneliness was born when men praised my talkative faults and blamed my silent virtues.

I can't love you unless I give you up.

In the end, trying to be perfect is the unconscious social effort to please ourselves by pleasing these others.

Jail is no place for a young fellow. There's no advancement.

Don't read the sutras - practice meditation. Don't take up the broom - practice meditation. Don't plant tea seeds - practice meditation.

A man's got to work for more than himself and his kids to feel right

Our children are the gift we give the world we'll never see.

I like to try all kinds of styles so it always challenges me and forces me to try to look different.

I think the world's always a better place if people are filled with understanding.

If you're a movie star, the studios don't want you to act. They just want you to show up and look good and chase girls and have a lot of laughs.