What man ain't the honestest cove in his own eyes?" Grote's round face is a bronze moon in the dark. "'Tain't good intentions what paves the road to hell: it's self-justifyin's.

So little is actually worthy of belief or disbelief. Better to strive to coexist than seek to disapprove . . .

One's ribs shouldn't be prison bars.

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love.

How gleefully life shreds our well crafted plans.

The truth of a myth, your Honor, is not its words but its patterns.

I wish, he thinks, spoken words could be captured and kept in a locket.

The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature.

But thought has no eyelids to close or ears to block...

Anna would like you, he thinks, looking into her face. Anna would like you.

I find a certain comfort, " confesses Marinus, "in humanity's helplessness.

If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one's chances of survival increase with each book one reads.

What should a good children’s book be like? If you ask me, I can tell you after thinking long and hard: It must be good.

He had won, easily. This was something else he could do, and do well, and his Dad had been there to witness his success.

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:They are the ground, the books, the academes, From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.

Suffering over things that have happened to us is nothing more than an argument with the past.

And when we would make much of that which cannot matter much to thee, forgive us -a frequent part of the prayer that opened sermons.

Elvis Presley is my spiritual father, and as you may know Maria Callas is my spiritual mother.

Don't let me outlive this woman. Don't let me exist one moment without her.

There is Auschwitz, and so there cannot be God.

I don't really have plans like that [move towards more dramatic acting].