“What is meant, however, is a higher category than being: the power of maintaining being.”

In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves.

The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God.

Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation.

To answer, to live in a way which is compatible with the grandeur and mystery of living.

We can all do our share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and all frustrations and all disappointments.

Mankind will not die for lack of information; it may perish for lack of appreciation.

When I see an act of evil I don’t accomodate, I don’t accomodate myself to the violence that goes on everywhere.

We do not step out of the world when we pray; we merely see the world in a different setting.

Is not self-sufficiency itself insufficient to explain self-sufficiency?

I would say about individuals, A Individual dies when they cease to to be surprised. I am surprised every morning when I see the sunshine again.

Wise criticism always begins with self-criticism.

To sing means to sense and to affirm that the spirit is real and that its glory is present.

When I marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.

Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.

The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.

To be is to stand for.

Reading across three languages is a way for me to diversify my intake as a reader, not to tunnel into certain categories or demographics.

I recommend you dispose of anything that does not fall into one of three categories: currently in use, needed for a limited period of time, or must be kept indefinitely.

People who can’t stay tidy can be categorized into just three types: ‘the can’t throw it away type’, ‘the can’t put it back type’, and ‘the first-two-combined’ type.

The serious artist must be as open as nature. Nature does not give all of herself in a paragraph. She is rugged and not set apart into discreet categories.

Some great people are leaders and others are more lucky, in the right place at the right time. I’d put myself in the latter category. But I’d never call myself a normal designer of anything.

Voices are like fingerprints, from Cagney to Bogart. They never lost it. My voice is instrumental in categorizing me.

Depression – it falls into that small category of things like combat that, if you haven’t been in it, you can say you can imagine it all you like. But it’s truly different.

I’m the only talk show host, I think, if there’s such a category in, what’s called, the book of records, to have a guest die while we were taping the show, yeah.