Coming, as I do, from mountain folk on one side and sea followers on the other, there are few old songs of the hills or the sea with which I am not familiar.

Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.

The more I see of what you call civilization, the more highly I think of what you call savagery!

Barbarianism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is the whim of circumstance. And barbarianism must ultimately triumph

Break the skin of civilization and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed.

The only safe enemy was a headless enemy.

For man's only weapon is courage that flinches not from the gates of Hell itself, and against such not even the legions of Hell can stand.

But not all men seek rest and peace; some are born with the spirit of the storm in their blood.

What is death but a traversing of eternities and a crossing of cosmic oceans?

Man can be that which he wishes to be; form and substance, they are but shadows. The mind, the ego, the essence of the god-dream -- that is real, that is immortal.

I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.

If only the Geologists would let me alone, I could do very well, but those dreadful Hammers! I hear the clink of them at the end of every cadence of the Bible verses

I’m not punishing you.’ ‘No?’ ‘No. You’d know if I was. Trust me.

Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.

The most amazing thing I've ever seen was Jay Johnstone, in uniform, in line at a concession stand in Dodger Stadium after the game had already started.

Riches without charity are nothing worth. They are a blessing only to him who makes them a blessing to others.

I'm reluctant to draw many conclusions from private correspondence leaked without permission.

I have to say, music was always my self preservation survival technique. This sort of sacred space in my life and in my mind.

Do not hurry too fast in these early winter days, - a quiet hour is worth more to you than anything you can do in it.

My poems - I don't even like the sound of that, in a way. Not that anyone else wrote them. But we know that only people who are really close to us care about our personal experience.

Successful people jump at opportunity and take advantage of it.