God demands a conversion of the mind and heart as the basis of peace and security (cf. Is 26:3), not the superstitious veneration of a stone building or a traditionally sacred site

The simple act of opening a bottle of wine has brought more happiness to the human race than all the collective governments in the history of earth

I'm only myself when I have a guitar in my hands.

Barring love I'll take my life in large doses alone--rivers, forests, fish, grouse, mountains. Dogs.

The wilderness does not make you forget your normal life so much as it removes the distractions for proper remembering.

The danger of civilization, of course, is that you will piss away your life on nonsense.

Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends.

In a life properly lived, you're a river.

There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.

I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process.

The liberties of a people depend on their own constant attention to its preservation.

Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.

The violent subjugation of the Palestinians, Iraqis, and Afghans will only ensure that those who oppose us will increasingly speak to us in the language we speak to them—violence.

So it's been a slow process and it's taken some patience. That's why patients are called patients I think - patience is required.

It can be dangerous to weaken the strong in our attempts to strengthen the weak.

I want to give people theories, I want to expose them to scientific stories that force them to re-evaluate the way they use these three pounds of meat inside their head.

We should wear whatever we think looks nice and wear it with confidence. That will put you in a good mood and I think it will lead to an abundant society

Earthworms are far more valuable than people.

In the literary as well as military world, most powerful abilities will often be found concealed under a rustic garb.

Whenever a total eclipse of the sun was visible in an accessible region parties were sent out to observe it.

I shot Barton Fink in July and moved out to LA that fall. The movie came out in the spring and it was a year before I got Wings.