Real understanding does not come from what we learn in books; it comes from what we learn from love of nature, of music, of man. For only what is learned in that way is truly understood.

To the whole world you might be just one person, but to one person you might just be the whole world.

The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?

The cello is like a beautiful woman who has not grown older, but younger with time, more slender, more supple, more graceful.

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe; a moment that never was before and never will be again.

Don't play the notes. Play the meaning of the notes.

I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.

It takes courage for people to listen to their own goodness and act on it.

I used to think that eighty was a very old age. Now I am ninety. I do not think this any more. As long as you are able to admire and to love, you are young.

The person who works and is never bored is never old. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for age.

Tell me a story. Be my storyteller.

Some people's hearts are shrunk in them like dried nuts. You can hear 'em rattle as they walk.

The bravest battle that ever was fought Shall I tell you where and when? On the maps of the world you will find it not It was fought by the mothers of men.

How many wives have been forced by the death of well-intentioned but too protective husbands to face reality late in life, bewildered and frightened because they were strangers to it!

Who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.

There's no problem on the planet that can't be solved without violence. That's the lesson of the civil rights movement.

Focus not on doing less or doing more but on doing what you value.

Everyone needs someone to tell them not to wear so much Prada.

Each person is different and each one will reach God by his or her own path.

Saul Bellow has that character in Henderson the Rain King say: "I want, I want, I want!"9 I remember reading this passage years ago and thinking, yes, that's the human.