What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories.

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

Interventions are really emotionally exhausting and I would never ever want to have one. In the same way, I would never want to have a surprise birthday party. That would be horrible.

A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss, in the Republican Party he is a leader.

Man hovers between Paradise and the Pit.

I never went to acting school, so improv was my training. Just being quick on your feet helps in everyday life.

We would rather be in the company of somebody we like than in the company of the most superior being of our acquaintance.

The worst of failure of this kind is that it spoils the market for more competent performers.

The press is our chief ideological weapon.

Life is short but there is always time for courtesy.

Sure, I've been on the Tube...I caught it to Eastbourne once.

The people who came to hear me perform or to buy my records were not the type who would be offended [by the song 'The Vatican Rag']. But I gather that there were other people who were offended.