People who speak the same language can hate one another as easily as can people who speak unrelated languages.

Food to a large extent is what holds a society together, and eating is closely linked to deep spiritual experiences.

A complex society is not necessarily more advanced than a simple one; it has just adapted to conditions in a more complicated way.

Gestures and facial expressions do indeed communicate, as anyone can prove by turning off the sound on a television set and asking watchers to characterize the speakers from the picture alone.

The environment does not determine man's culture; it merely sets the outer limits and at the same time offers opportunities.

Despite the theories traditionally taught in high-school social studies, the truth is: the more primitive the society, the more leisured its way of life.

An inability to communicate has little to do with international friction-as is seen in the special ferocity of wars fought between people who speak the same language.

An invention or new combination can be successful only if all if the elements necessary for the recombination are present in the culture.

No child is capable of speech until he has heard other human beings speak, and even two infants reared together cannot develop a language from scratch.

In place of science, the Eskimo has only magic to bridge the gap between what he can understand and what is not known. Without magic, his life would be one long panic.

Language does not stand still. Surprisingly, despite this knowledge, most speakers are fearful of change.

God has always given me the strength to say what is right.

He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.

I killed a squirrel once with a car. Twice with a tennis racket.

I went through a furnace and came out knowing who I am.

I like to challenge myself.

That's what I miss out of all this synthesized music - it starts to lose dynamics.

Americans being upright and forthright and honest and true to themselves is a very hard concept.

There's comedy even in tragedy. There's comedy in life. And in 'Castle', we go for that comedy.

If I'm at home on my own and the writing isn't going well, I clean my house. And there have been times in the past few years when my house has looked really clean.

I contemplate the body, dead and diseased as well as alive and healthy.