The intellectuals' chief cause of anguish are one another's works.

Of course, clothing fashions have always been impractical, except in Tahiti.

If it were possible to talk to the unborn, one could never explain to them how it feels to be alive, for life is washed in the speechless real.

The danger that may really threaten (crime fiction) is that soon there will be more writers than readers

Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred.

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.

The truth is, when all is said and done, one does not teach a subject, one teaches a student how to learn it.

If civilization has risen from the Stone Age, it can rise again from the Wastepaper Age.

Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game - and do it by watching first some high school or small-town teams.

Universities incline wits to sophistry and affectation.

These tools were my parents’ way of saying: What you’re doing is important. We support it. We want to help you find your way.

Memory only becomes interesting through its struggle with forgetfulness.

My shoulder will never be the same. I expect you to nurse me back to health." - City of Bones (said by Jace Wayland)

When I was a nurse my favourite assignment was the anorexic ward. I sometimes ate as many as seventeen dinners

We never make sport of religion, politics, race or mothers. A mother never gets hit with a custard pie. Mothers-in-law-yes. But mothers-never.

Excellence is not an act, but a habit.

You know what’s really good is a greyhound in the shower.

Our conversation rate has to go up before our conversion rate can go up.

I’d rather have my eyes gouged out. (Urian) If I do that, can the Simi eat them? (Simi) You have to share if you do! (Xirena)

Justice is often pale and melancholy; but Gratitude, her daughter, is constantly in the flow of spirits and the bloom of loveliness.