A writer’s promise is like a tiger’s smile

The stability and peace which seemed to be so firmly established by the brilliant monarchy of Francis I vanished with the terrible outbreak of the Wars of Religion.

Perhaps of all the creations of man language is the most astonishing.

It is probably always disastrous not to be a poet.

Human beings are too important to be treated as mere symptoms of the past. They have a value which is independent of any temporal process──which is eternal, and must be felt for its own sake.

There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages.

Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.

Perhaps the best test of a man's intelligence is his capacity for making a summary.

Englishmen have always loved Moliere.

Discretion is not the better part of biography.

The genius of the French language, descended from its single Latin stock, has triumphed most in the contrary direction - in simplicity, in unity, in clarity, and in restraint.

Shine brightly thy inner light.

On 'The Office, ' so much of the show is about disguising your true feelings and your romantic feelings because it was a mock documentary.

But Nature cast me for the part she found me best fitted for, and I have had to play it, and must play it till the curtain falls.

Talent like Michael's is rare. I feel so privileged to have known him and so look forward to honouring his memory in what is going to be the biggest and only tribute to this great showman.

Dead Air' is full of rants; it's a rant-based book. Yes, it's self-indulgence. I plead guilty; mea culpa.

I like everything in my room has to be in order. If there's a wrinkle in the comforter, I'm stretching it out. But this is only when it comes to my room. Outside of there, I'm not as intense.

An ignorant man is insignificant and contemptible; nobody cares for his company, and he can just be said to live, and that is all.

There is a vast difference between success at twenty-five and success at sixty. At sixty, nobody envies you. Instead, everybody rejoices generously, sincerely, in your good fortune.

There's a million white people better qualified than a black man to be president of America.