Passionate love, I take it, rarely lasts long, and is very troublesome while it does last. Mutual esteem is very much more valuable.

An author must be nothing if he do not love truth; a barrister must be nothing if he do.

When the ivy has found its tower, when the delicate creeper has found its strong wall, we know how the parasite plants grow and prosper.

Never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning.

Fame is a skittish jade, more fickle even than Fortune, and apt to shy, and bolt, and plunge away on very trifling causes.

What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book, and a cup of coffee?...Was ever anything so civil?

The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade.

There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.

It has now become the doctrine of a large clan of politicians that political honesty is unnecessary, slow, subversive of a man's interests, and incompatible with quick onward movement.

There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.

Love is like any other luxury. You have no right to it unless you can afford it.

It's only when the settlement work has gone on for months that one realizes how bad things are. As our secretary said to me, your finger-nails never seem dirty until you wash your hands.

Human beings have speculated about the relationship between inspiration and insanity for centuries.

A three-quarter moon, glowering bone, with a hint of something bruised, battered, scarred. The moon has endured more than anybody can know.

Don't try to help people to 'not die', help them to enjoy life!

I've always felt, even as a songwriter, that the rhythm of speech is in itself a language for me.

Write the unpublishable.. .and then publish it.

Besides the vocal warm ups, me and my band have a secret hand shake that we do just to get us all pumped. It's nice.

The enjoyment of life is only possible if the world could get connected to the spirit... you become the spirit as Christ has said in simple words that you have to be born again.

You got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues...And you know it don't come easy.

Bold botches are to be cherished.