A story should, to please, at least seem true, Be apropos, well told, concise, and new: And whenso'er it deviates from these rules, The wise will sleep, and leave applause to fools.

See how the skilful lover spreads his toils.

Philosophers and common heathen believed one God, to whom all things were referred; but under this God they worshipped many inferior and subservient gods.

Astrological prayers seem to me to be built on as good reason as the predictions.

Sincerity and honesty carry one through many difficulties which all the arts he can invent would never help him through.

Prayer among men is supposed a means to change the person to whom we pray; but prayer to God doth not change him, but fits us to receive the things prayed for.

Peace and wickedness are far asunder.

Error is but the shadow of the truth.

Nothing enlarges the gulf of atheism more than the wide passage that lies between the faith and lives of men pretending to teach Christianity.

Opportunity makes the man

It's only when the settlement work has gone on for months that one realizes how bad things are. As our secretary said to me, your finger-nails never seem dirty until you wash your hands.

If I could quietly kill her without anyone knowing, I would.

Shoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award.

It's not funny when you actually get shot, but afterwards, yeah, it's funny.

There are definitely things about 'Legendary Child' that echo the music we did earlier in our career. It's got the right stuff.

It is only with the best judges that the highest works of art would lose none of their honor by being seen in their rudiments.

What people can survive and what they don't survive is shocking to me. Someone can go to Iraq and be blown to bits and survive. Someone can trip and fall on the street and they die - that's that.

In Gospel grammar, death is not an exclamation point, merely a comma.

I've found that the people who play villains are the nicest people in the world and people who play heroes are jerks.