“Hope for the best, survive the worst, find humor wherever you can.”

And this has had a strong tendency to dampen serious discussion of theological issues in most groups, and hence to strengthen the general anti-intellectual bias.

Virtue, like a dowerless beauty, has more admirers than followers.

Everything pales in comparison to deer.

The wise man realistically accepts as part of life and builds a philosophy to meet them and make the most of them. He lives on the principle of nothing attempted, nothing gained and is resolved that if he fails he is going to fail while trying to succeed.

Men do not mirror themselves in running water; they mirror themselves in still water.

American culture has always known success, not suffering, so we’ve never known what to do with this part of the Bible.

The great soul that sits on the throne of the universe is not, never was, and never will be, in a hurry.

Letters should be easy and natural.

It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them.

The eyes are the amulets of the mind.

A third, of more extensive learning, ran To Sir George Villiers’ Ghost, and Mrs. Veal; Of sheeted Spectres spoke with shorten’d breath, And thrice he quoted Drelincourt on Death.

I count this thing to be grandly true: That a noble deed is a step toward God.

The Universe knows itself and expands itself through me.

O hour, of all hours, the most blesse’d upon earth, The bless’d hour of our dinners!

It’s never safe to be nostalgic about something until you’re absolutely certain there’s no chance of its coming back

Most people – and particularly people whose lives have nothing to do with books at all – are intrigued by the idea that somebody wants to listen to them and get it right.

You can dominate a game if you dominate on the line… We’re just going to have to go out there and work hard and blow people off the ball, and let our runners do what they do best.

The best advice anybody could have given me was to keep getting up over and over again.

I’m just going to be the best version of me that I could possibly be and be as funny as I possibly can.

It seems the best work I do is when I am really allowing the unconscious to rule the page and then later I can go back and hack around and make sense of things.

Children make up the best songs, anyway. Better than grown-ups. Kids are always working on songs and throwing them away, like little origami things or paper airplanes. They don’t care if they lose it; they’ll just make another one.

Problems are chances for us to do our best.

In high school I was best in music class on the trumpet, but the prizes went to the boys with blue eyes. I made up my mind to outdo anybody white on my horn.

Being physically away from Hollywood probably loses me a few jobs, but the best ones seek me out.