If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight.

The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.

Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does — except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place.

Art does not exist only to entertain, but also to challenge one to think, to provoke, even to disturb, in a constant search for truth.

Always behave like a duck — keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath.

I defy you to read the life of any saint that has ever adorned the life of the Church without seeing at once that the greatest characteristic in the life of that saint was discipline and order. Invariably it is the universal characteristic of all the outstanding men and women of God.

There isn't much discussion of ruling class in America even in Boston, probably one of the most class-conscious cities in the country?

Creativity — like human life itself — begins in darkness.

Someday we'll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car.

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives... Any thought that is passed on to the subconscious often enough and convincingly enough is finally accepted.

Work is the best antidote for savaged work. If we are engaged in making something new, we are less invested in the reception of something old. If we remember to keep our own counsel — "How did I like the work?" — then we are less likely to be blown apart by the judgment of others. Having a healthy forum of before, during and after friends is also an enormous help. We need those who love us and our work for the long haul and not for a hot-off-the-presses pick or pan.

My neighbor has a circular driveway... he can't get out.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.

Drive-in banks were established so most of the cars today could see their real owners.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious, nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave.

Where your talents and the needs of your students meet there lies your calling as a teacher.

The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

The opinions which we hold of one another, our relations with friends and kinsfolk are in no sense permanent, save in appearance, but are as eternally fluid as the sea itself.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves.

Every birthday, you decide whether to mark it the end of your greatest days or the beginning of your finest hour.

Reality is above all else a variable and nobody is qualified to say that he or she knows exactly what it is. As a matter of fact, with a firm enough commitment, you can sometimes create a reality which did not exist before.

Divorce is very expensive, both economically and psychologically as well, but it probably isn't any more so than living with someone who isn't really on your side.

People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.

If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old.

True change takes place in the imagination.

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.