Civilization is not a burden. It is an opportunity.

There is, I think, nothing in the world more futile than the attempt to find out how a task should be done when one has not yet decided what the task is.

Freedom is always wise.

Democracy is the art of thinking independently together.

Ah! Your heavenly smile makes my heart dance with the ecstasy of life.

There was no reason for Bella Swan to cross paths with me. She would be avoided like the plague she was.

My point has always been that, ever since the Industrial Revolution, science fiction has been the most important genre there is.

Milton almost requires a solemn service of music to be played before you enter upon him. But he brings his music, to which who listen had need bring docile thoughts and purged ears.

I saw that my witticism was unperceived and quietly replaced it in the treasury of my mind.

We live in a time when there is an abundance of ways we can express ourselves.

Thou must (in commanding and winning, or serving and losing, suffering or triumphing) be either anvil or hammer.

What makes a regiment of soldiers a more noble object of view than the same mass of mob? Their arms, their dresses, their banners, and the art and artificial symmetry of their position and movements.

Long term I do believe internationally there is a huge misunderstanding of Russia.

It's a strange paradox that a man gifted with too many talents can fritter them all away without developing a single one to its full.