If the man who turnips cries Cry not when his father dies 'Tis proof that he had rather Have a turnip than his father.

Cucumber should be well sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

The remedy for life's broken pieces is not classes, workshops or books. Don't try to heal the broken pieces. Just forgive.

Mr President, the president is dead.

If beginnings terrify you, or if you just plain don't like writing them, or if they bore you, skip 'em.

All my life, my heart has sought a thing I cannot name. Remembered line from a long- forgotten poem

Venice seemed incredibly lovely, elvishly lovely--to me like a dream of Old Gondor, or Pelargir of the Numenorean Ships, before the return of the Shadow.

The hoopla with all the award season is kind of mind-boggling. It kind of puts you on your heels.

If you spend five minutes complaining, you have just wasted five minutes.

When you reach that kind of successful pinnacle, it is the nature of the business and the press and everything that they go about tearing you down.

The greatest heresy in the American Evangelical and Protestant church is that if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, He will definitely come in!

Suffering and joy teach us, if we allow them, how to make the leap of empathy, which transports us into the soul and heart of another person.