“There are two things children should get from their parents: roots and wings.”

A word spoken is a terrible thing when it suddenly utters what the heart has long allowed.

On top of the world, or in the depths of despair.

One can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.

By seeking and blundering we learn.

He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.

If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.

I laugh at my heart, and do its will.

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

All that is transitory is but a metaphor.

I love those who yearn for the impossible.

Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast, and each will wrestle for the mastery there.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

We know accurately only when we know little; doubt grows with knowledge.

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

There is no past we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternal now that builds and creates out of the past something new and better.

We spend the first year of a child’s life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There’s something wrong there.

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.

Home is, I suppose just a child’s idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.

If there’s a God in heaven, what’s he waiting for? If He can’t hear the children, then he must see the war.

Ever since I was a kid, this was all I wanted to do. I’ve wanted to do music. I wanted to sing. It’s all I know.

I have three kids, and that’s a big part of staying focused.

When I was nine, I had this girlfriend and we used to have running races in the park. I wanted to be like Superman and fly in and rescue her.

I love every minute of fatherhood, staying up all night, changing nappies, kids crying, I find it really funny and inspiring. It connects you to the world in a new way.