It is not that the French are not profound, but they all express themselves so well that we are led to take their geese for swans.

No one is fit to judge a book until he has rounded Cape Horn in a sailing vessel, until he has bumped into two or three icebergs, until he has been lost in the sands of the desert, until he has spent a few years in the House of the Dead.

The man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man.

The creative impulses of man are always at war with the possessive impulses.

Magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And, what is more, they find it everywhere.

If men were basically evil, who would bother to improve the world instead of giving it up as a bad job at the outset?

The American mind, unlike the English, is not formed by books, but, as Carl Sandburg once said to me... by newspapers and the Bible.

People of small caliber are always carping. They are bent on showing their own superiority, their knowledge or prowess or good breeding.

There is no stopping the world's tendency to throw off imposed restraints, the religious authority that is based on the ignorance of the many, the political authority that is based on the knowledge of the few.

Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright.

Nothing is sadder than having worldly standards without worldly means.

It is not that the French are not profound, but they all express themselves so well that we are led to take their geese for swans.

The Boston people were willing to learn but only if one recognized how much they knew already.

How delightful is the company of generous people who overlook trifles and keep their minds instinctively fixed on whatever is good and positive in the world around them.

One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the Spring.

If you want to save a species, simply decide to eat it. Then it will be managed - like chickens, like turkeys, like deer, like Canadian geese.

There are no golden geese. There are only fat geese eating the food that could nourish more athletic opportunities for women.

We procured from an Indian a weasel perfectly white except the extremity of the tail which was black: great numbers of wild geese are passing to the south, but their flight is too high for us to procure any of them.

It is not that the French are not profound, but they all express themselves so well that we are led to take their geese for swans.

While I was writing Wild Swans I thought the famine was the result of economic mismanagement but during the research I realised that it was something more sinister.

When turkeys mate they think of swans.

Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing.

Sometimes I'll go by and there are a couple of swans, the next day it's a few ducks. I'd like to stop there every day for a year and capture how it changes, then put it all together to create an incredible image of a traditional English scene.

Sometimes, you have to be frustrated and do something unscalable and a waste of your time to be inspired.

Everything is happening spontaneously, and the witnessing of it is also happening spontaneously. Everything is already happening in natural balance.

In Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers. Laurie, Jamie Lee's character, was shy and somewhat repressed. And Michael Myers, the killer, is definitely repressed. They have certain similarities.

You always draw from your roots. I'm influenced by everything I hear and see, and that includes music today, but obviously I go back to my early influences: Stevie Wonder, Parliament, Earth, Wind & Fire, Ohio Players, Average White Band. Those kind of artists are what I look to. When I hear that stuff on the radio, I turn it up!

You often say I would give but only to the deserving. The trees in your orchard say not so nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live for to withhold is to perish.

Helpful is the new viral.

I wasn't attractive when I was growing up, and I don't think I am now.

Government bonds have basically been sold in the domestic market, so there is some sense of stability, but the amount of public debt is really severe... Japan must manage its finances with a sense of urgency.

Might is right

Having red hair is never good when you're a kid. I was picked on a lot and didn't have a lot of friends. But I think that gave me a thick skin and helped make me a better person.

I know I'm not supposed to like muscle cars, but I like muscle cars.

The key to success in life is using the good thoughts of wise people.

I'm a long-time fan of Rob Long, and his books are hugely re-readable, detailing the ins and outs of being a Hollywood comedy writer with a past success but with everything to prove.

At its best, film should be like a ski jump. It should give the viewer the option of taking flight, while the act of jumping is left up to him.

Brand equity doesnt change based on economic considerations.

If someone remembers me as a coach, they still call me 'Coach,' but if they know me for the video game, they just call me 'Madden.'

This drama between Dean and Ehrlichman took place while I was trying to give the contents to the FBI.

My idea of baking is buying a ready make cake mix and throwing in an egg.

By the time I got into Juilliard, I was working at a Target distribution warehouse. It didn't make anything, it just shipped things, and my job was just to stand there and look at the security codes on the back of trucks and see if they would lock, and check them in.

When someone makes a claim against the state, that person must legally verify that the facts in the claim are true.

I'm drawn to opportunities that are going to challenge me and cause me to look outside of my own experiences.

I have a very deep religious belief.

It's okay not to be okay. Sometimes it's hard to follow your heart. Tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising.

I am struck by the fact that personal faith and political agendas are intertwined more closely now than at any other time in recent history.