Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.

The reason a writer writes a book is to forget a book and the reason a reader reads one is to remember it.

In Sleep we lie all naked and alone, in Sleep we are united at the heart of night and darkness, and we are strange and beautiful asleep; for we are dying the darkness and we know no death.

Perhaps this is our strange and haunting paradox here in America - that we are fixed and certain only when we are in movement.

America - it is a fabulous country, the only fabulous country; it is the only place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time.

Is this not the true romantic feeling; not to desire to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping you.

A young man is so strong, so mad, so certain, and so lost. He has everything and he is able to use nothing.

Not even the most powerful organs of the press, including Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times, can discover a new artist or certify his work and make it stick. They can only bring you the scores.

Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man.

Publishing is a very mysterious business. It is hard to predict what kind of sale or reception a book will have, and advertising seems to do very little good.

All things on earth point home in old October; sailors to sea, travellers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken.

Death the last voyage, the longest, and the best.

If a man has talent and can't use it, he's failed. If he uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he uses the whole of it, he has succeeded, and won a satisfaction and triumph few men ever know.

Most of the time we think we're sick, it's all in the mind.

Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.

You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity.

One belongs to New York instantly. One belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.

A young man is so strong so mad so certain and so lost. He has everything and he is able to use nothing.

If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know.

So, then, to every man his chance--to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity--to every man the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him--this, seeker, is the promise of America.

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.

It takes a lot more energy to fail than to succeed, since it takes a lot of concentrated energy to hold on to beliefs that don't work.

When you are getting ready to become a mom, being in love with someone just isn't enough. You need to think about whether he would be a good parent and raise your children with similar beliefs.

Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.

Change can either challenge or threaten us. Your beliefs pave your way to success or block you.

Broad tolerance in the matter of beliefs is necessarily a part of the new ethics.

We're very open and outspoken about our faith and our beliefs. We also talk about our doubts, our moments of insecurities. We talk about it all day, how we're inspired by God. We recognize little miracles every day, and that's how we're raising our daughter.

Customs form us all, our thoughts, our morals, our most fixed beliefs; are consequences of our place of birth.

Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.

It remains to consider what attitude thoughtful men and Christian believers should take respecting them, and how they stand related to beliefs of another order.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that you have to agree with people and their beliefs to defend them from injustice.

But there's no reason why we should abdicate our foundational principles because certain groups don't believe in them. You know, no majority should surrender its deeply held beliefs to those who don't believe in anything.

If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything, including those things that other people are certain are impossible.

You always really have to remain consistent in your beliefs and philosophy.

The domination of western values, beliefs and way of life has angered many from the east and in developing countries.

I am proud to be an American, and proud that such beliefs are at the core of our country and its citizens.

Sometimes all it takes to change a life is to decide which beliefs do not serve you and to literally change your mind about those beliefs.

I consider myself a non-denominational Christian. I grew up in a Bible church and still hold those beliefs very close to me.

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.

It is curious to reflect, for example, upon the remarkable legend of the Philosopher's Stone, one of the oldest and most universal beliefs, the origin of which, however far back we penetrate into the records of the past, we do not probably trace its real source.

The basic fault lines today are not between people with different beliefs but between people who hold these beliefs with an element of uncertainty and people who hold these beliefs with a pretense of certitude.

Do not try to approach God with your thinking mind. It may only stimulate your intellectual ideas, activities, and beliefs. Try to approach God with your crying heart. It will awaken your soulful, spiritual consciousness.

It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip.

God help us from those who believe that they are the sole possessors of truth. How we manage at times to agree willingly to become prisoners within our own minds and souls of beliefs and ideas on which we can never be flexible.

What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.

In times when religious or political faith or hope predominates, the writer functions totally in unison with society, and expresses society's feelings, beliefs, and hopes in perfect harmony.

Beliefs and values that have held sway for thousands of years will be questioned as never before.

The US constitution's First Amendment rights only cover Americans, but I believe that in a democracy the competition of ideas and free speech should combat beliefs that it does not agree with - more speech and debate, not censorship.

There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs... begins.