refuge of scoundrels

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness, which this world affords.

It seems to be the fate of man to seek all his consolations in futurity.

To keep your secret is wisdom; to expect others to keep it is folly.

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.

Whatever enlarges hope will also exalt courage.

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable.

He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity.

To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.

refuge of scoundrels

Whatever you have, spend less.

Every country is going to have to face up to globalisation, but Scotland has got a unique capacity because of its history as part of a multinational state to help us deal with that problem.

Not missing games, miss one game due to injury in my career, and that even hurt me to miss that game, but I just love to get out there and compete, both ends of the ball, and I don't think I'm afraid to take the big shot. If I'm 2-for-15, I'm not afraid to take that shot, make it 3-for-16.

Making bad decisions and choosing the wrong partner can ruin your life for a long time perhaps forever.

I did have a go with Botox, but I couldn't move my eyebrows. I also, at one point, had that filler stuff injected, but I looked like a hamster with wodges of food in its cheeks, so I stopped that.

Tactics mean doing what you can with what you have.

The toppling of idols - even respectable, admired, best-practice, fastest-growing idols - is always the road to liberation.

It's a dog eat dog world, and Mr. Perfect is a Milk Bone.

There's a directness and a feistiness to being from Jersey.

When people say 'that's risky,' or when the odds are not in my favor, I'm more motivated than ever.

2015 was, like, packed from January. 2016 is simultaneously open and packed - but I'm trying to keep 2016 open as possible so I can do weird, crazy, kooky stuff.

Attachment is your biggest strength and your biggest weakness. Though it gives you the power to love someone more than yourself, it becomes difficult to live when you lose something you are attached to. Even when we have lost, we should go beyond that and get truly attached to someone. Loving someone truly is the most beautiful feeling.

What distinguishes Vilmos Zsigmond from other cinematographers is, of course, talent but, more, physical stamina. You just can't be great without it.

Life on our planet has been a constant series of cataclysmic events, and we are more suitable for extinction than a trilobite or a reptile. So we will vanish. There's no doubt in my heart.

All that tread, the globe are but a handful to the tribes, that slumber in its bosom.

If there is any secret to my success, I think it's that my characters are very real to me. I feel everything they feel, and therefore I think my readers care about them.

What you are afraid to do is a clear indicator of the next thing you need to do.

All too often when liberals cite statistics, they forget the statisticians' warning that correlation is not causation.

Actors are inherently self-centered.

I think we're taking a snapshot view of climate change and trying to implement policy based on that snapshot.

Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country.

I am open, free and loving.

I did not end up as broadly educated as my Cambridge colleagues, but I graduated probably better equipped to write a book on my chosen subject.

I was the only westerner to succeed in a place that's like a toilet, and you always come out of a toilet with a smell.

On a very personal level, I have fond memories of spending a lot of time in the Library of Congress working on my collection of poems 'Native Guard.' I was there over a summer doing research in the archives and then writing in the reading room at the Jefferson building.