He was a genius - that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something that most people cannot do by the uttermost exertion of their abilities.

Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

I cannot imagine any boy of spirit who would not be delighted to play a drunkard even to vomiting in front of his Sunday school. Indeed, the vomiting might be the chief attraction of the role.

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past.

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

A man must be obedient to the promptings of his innermost heart.

Art is wine and experience is the brandy we distill from it.

Conversation in its true meaning isn't all wagging the tongue; sometimes it is a deeply shared silence.

The dog is a yes-animal. Very popular with people who can't afford a yes man.

The thread of culture that runs through the entire history of punk is also a dedication to challenging the authoritarian.

We challenge our kids to be close around the 2:00 mark. If we can do that we can win games.

The poet, distracted by politics, asks of poetry that it make itself useful like metal or flour, that it get ready to stain its face with coal dust and fight body to body.

"My father," she admitted, "was of Italian extraction. Unfortunately, not an affliction that can be cured." She paused. "Though he did die."

If you act like the river, you ultimately flow past all the rocks along the way.

I think those who have impact and influence over us are often unaware.

Everyone is a liberal until they have something to conserve. Then they become a conservative.

Rain is good for vegetables, and for the animals who eat those vegetables, and for the animals who eat those animals.

I've always craved to belong to somewhere, but I never have and never will.

My parents, especially my dad, had a big influence on my hockey career. He introduced me to the game when I was younger, and I stuck with it.