Archives - December 2006

Love is an attempt at penetrating another being, but it can only succeed if the surrender is mutual.

We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read.

A loud voice cannot compete with a clear voice, even if it's a whisper.

There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you're so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.

A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.

The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.

Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

Whenever evil befalls us, we ought to ask ourselves, after the first suffering, how we can turn it into good. So shall we take occasion, from one bitter root, to raise perhaps many flowers.

It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.

What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our eyes!

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.

What I dream of is an art of balance.

There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.

I've never had a humble opinion. If you've got an opinion, why be humble about it?

It is foolish to wish for beauty. Sensible people never either desire it for themselves or care about it in others. If the mind be but well cultivated, and the heart well disposed, no one ever cares for the exterior.

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood...Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.

To yackety-yak about the past is for me time lost. Every morning I wake up saying, 'I'm still alive --- a miracle.' And so I keep on pushing.

There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.

Oh, never mind the fashion. When one has a style of one's own, it is always twenty times better.

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.

Spring, summer, and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition.

I call architecture frozen music.

Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly.

The secret of a good life is to have the right loyalties and hold them in the right scale of values.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

If what Proust says is true, that happiness is the absence of fever, then I will never know happiness. For I am possessed by a fever for knowledge, experience, and creation.

We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves.

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.