There is hardly that person to be found who is not more concerned for the reputation of wit and sense, than honesty and virtue.

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.

People spend their lives in the service of their passions instead of employing their passions in the service of their lives.

Among all the diseases of the mind there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the love of flattery.

Vanity makes people ridiculous, pride odious, and ambition terrible.

There is no Pleasure like that of receiving Praise from the Praiseworthy

A lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack, and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

A fool is in himself the object of pity, until he is flattered.

Zeal for the public good is the characteristic of a man of honor and a gentleman, and must take the place of pleasures, profits and all other private gratifications.

He never wears a watch (his own rebellion against time, against watching).

The essentials of poetry are rhythm, dance, and the human voice.

I think our lives are surely but the dreams Of spirits, dwelling in the distant spheres, Who as we die, do one by one awake.

Like italics and hyphens, quotation marks are to be used as sparingly as possible. They should light the way, not darken it.

My process is thinking, thinking and thinking - thinking about my stories for a long time.

Artillery conquers and infantry occupies.

Refuse to deny what you know but consent to how little that will always be, and, when the moment comes, the sky will open and the liberating intrusion will descend upon you.

If we allow public funds to be used to support our relatively benign, morally grounded schools, we will have to allow those public funds to be used for any type of private school.

Twin Peaks' is my favorite American TV show.

Now, there are a very large number of bodily movements, having their source in our nervous system, that do not possess the character of conscious actions.