“The mind of the scholar, if he would leave it large and liberal, should come in contact with other minds.”

I have an affection for a great city. I feel safe in the neighborhood of man, and enjoy the sweet security of the streets.

Talk not of wasted affection – affection never was wasted.

The counterfeit and counterpart of Nature is reproduced in art.

It is foolish to pretend that one is fully recovered from a disappointed passion. Such wounds always leave a scar.

The greatest firmness is the greatest mercy.

That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain.

There is nothing holier in this life of ours than the first consciousness of love, the first fluttering of its silken wings.

Whoever benefits his enemy with straightforward intention that man’s enemies will soon fold their hands in devotion.

Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.

Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait.

Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.

The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.

Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.

They who go Feel not the pain of parting; it is they Who stay behind that suffer.

A thought often makes us hotter than a fire.

I’ve spent so many years waiting for publishers to consider whether they wanted to print a book of mine, making contracts, taking months to fit it into the Fall list or the Spring list, fitting it into an advertising plan.

Ever since intelligent beings began to be in contact, and consequently in friction, they have felt the need to guard themselves against each other’s encroachments.

The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.

A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.

Computer literacy is a contact with the activity of computing deep enough to make the computational equivalent of reading and writing fluent and enjoyable.

It’s always better to speak the language of the team. Not only for the direct contact with everyone.

Love is not a contract between two narcissists.

I contact Allah the Holy the Merciful on a daily basis.