“The way to rise is to obey and please.”

Whosoever loves not picture is injurious to truth, and all the wisdom of poetry. Picture is the invention of heaven, the most ancient and most akin to nature. It is itself a silent work, and always one and the same habit.

Many might go to heaven with half the labour they go to hell, if they would venture their industry the right way.

All concord’s born of contraries.

Minds that are great and free, should not on fortune pause: ‘Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause.

Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.

The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting.

Freedom doth with degree dispense.

Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times.

There is no bounty to be showed to such As have real goodness: Bounty is A spice of virtue; and what virtuous act Can take effect on them that have no power Of equal habitude to apprehend it?

I perceive affection makes a fool Of any man too much the father.

Court a mistress, she denies you; let her alone, she will court you.

Nor shall our cups make any guilty men; But at our parting, we will be, as when We innocently met.

Force works on servile natures, not the free.

It is virtue that gives glory; that will endenizen a man everywhere.

Queen and huntress, chaste and fair Now the sun is laid to sleep, Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep: Hesperus entreats thy light Goddess, excellently bright.

They, who know no evil, will suspect none.

The way people come into your life when you need them, it’s wonderful and it happens in so many ways. It’s like having an angel. Somebody comes along and helps you get right.

If you’re going to do something wrong, do it big, because the punishment is the same either way.

Music will always find its way to us, with or without business, politics, religion, or any other bullshit attached.

It’s insecurity that is always chasing you and standing in the way of your dreams.

The way you dress is the billboard that tells perceptive people how you feel about yourself.

As an African American child growing up in the segregated South, I was told, one way or another, almost every day of my life, that I wasn’t as good as a white child.

In playing, I suppose my greatest gift was to express the way I felt or the willingness to express myself.

The great virtue of being alone is that your mind can go its own way.