You can put it another way, of course; you always can.

A pier is a disappointed bridge; yet stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side of the Channel.

Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books.

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.

The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.

The land of embarrassment and breakfast.

When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.

Some of the freckles I once loved are now closer to liver spots. But it’s still the eyes we look at, isn’t it? That’s where we found the other person, and find them still.

The more you learn, the less you fear. "Learn" not in the sense of academic study, but in the practical understanding of life.

Politics doesn't align with emotions. An emotional politician is most likely to be a tyrannical leader.

Loneliness is just a passing disillusion we can conquer by acknowledging those around us.

Sweat saves blood.

It 's possible to forgive someone a great deal if he makes you laugh.

Nothing would more effectively further the development of education than for all flogging pedagogues to learn to educate with the head instead of with the hand.

No great question will ever be settled in dollars and cents. Great questions must be settled on moral grounds and the tests of what makes free men.

When you rest in the weakness of your heart, your being moves and your self becomes quieted.

Once I was, yes. But now I have turned my direction away from anything that's racist.

I have a lot of growing up to do. But I think, 'Hell, is it too late?'

The top athletes are consummate pros who work obsessively at their craft. Approach yours the same way.