I endeavor to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content with what cannot be mended, and patient when there be no redress.

I never invite idiots to my house.

it is more to my personal happiness and advantage to indulge the love and admiration of excellence, than to cherish a secret envy of it.

Any wife will save you from purgatory, and a diligent one will secure heaven to you.

The only thing one can do one day one did not do the day before is to die.

The muses crown virtue when fortune refuses to do it.

The outrages of the powerful, the insolence of the rich, scorn of the proud, and malice of the uncharitable, all beating against the broken spirit of the unfortunate.

I always wish to find great virtues where there are great talents, and to love what I admire.

Not to be miserable is all some people are capable of.

Few people know anything of the English history but what they learn from Shakespear; for our story is rather a tissue of personal adventures and catastrophes than a series of political events.

You will find many a creature by earth, air, and water, that is more beautiful than a woman.

Roll-up those sleeves and work until you see the fruit of your labour. It takes Passion, Resolve and a Productive Work Ethic, meeting with Opportunity, for you to succeed.

We were too greedy, grasping for immortality too soon. Perhaps if we had only been patient, content to wait, we would all have forever in the end.

To understand the soulis to master the soul

It's your 21st birthday... What are you doing sober at the front row of a concert? Is it your 21st birthday? By the end of the night I promise... we will get you drunk, my friend.

You know, I spend most of my life turning things down. There's a lot of crap out there.

TV, it's a director's medium, and they wanna make it look interesting. To be rehearsing mostly for the sake of where you're standing so they can do the lighting, that's what I don't like.

It's a very strange thing when you make nature illegal.

Most of the negro leaders who get the support of the power structure end up being against [Reverend] Galamison.

Painting and illustration cannot be mixed—one cannot merge from one into the other.

I agree: Americans can be very apathetic. We're not proactive. We sit and watch TV.