In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.

If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.

Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring.

In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.

A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition.

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.

It is with the soul that we grasp the essence of another human being, not with the mind, nor even with the heart.

either you take in believing in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird.

Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.

Art is only a means to life, the life more abundant. It merely points the way.

Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything - except his own nature.

The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides.

Take God for your spouse and friend and walk with him continually, and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you.

Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing.

It is too bad if you have to do everything upon reflection and can't do anything from early habit.

The poet is the priest of the invisible.

Ever since the '70s, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo were the godfathers of Scandinavian crime. They broke the crime novel in Scandinavia from the kiosks and into the serious bookstores.

There are 6.6 billion people on the planet today. With organic farming we could only feed four billion of them. Which two billion would volunteer to die?

Emotion did not play a part in truth, only reality did.

I'm not going to pretend I'm someone I'm not. I'm not going to put on a pre-fab identity.

In Russia all tyrants believe poets to be their worst enemies.