“The direct tyranny will come on by and by, after it shall have gratified the multitude with the spoil and ruin of the old institutions of the land.”

The most happy marriage I can picture or imagine to myself would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman.

Nothing is as contagious as enthusiasm. It is the real allegory of the myth of Orpheus; it moves stones, and charms brutes. It is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it.

Nature has her proper interest; and he will know what it is, who believes and feels, that every Thing has a Life of its own, and that we are all one Life.

Those who best know human nature will acknowledge most fully what a strength light hearted nonsense give to a hard working man

Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

It is saying less than the truth to affirm that an excellent book (and the remark holds almost equally good of a Raphael as of a Milton) is like a well-chosen and well-tended fruit tree. Its fruits are not of one season only. With the due and natural intervals.

With all our wisdom and foresight we can take a lesson in gladness and gratitude from the happy bird that sings all night, as if the day were not long enough to tell its joy.

No man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a profound philosopher.

To be beloved is all I need, And whom I love, I love indeed.

Alas! they had been friends in youth; but whispering tongues can poison truth.

In philosophy equally as in poetry it is the highest and most useful prerogative of genius to produce the strongest impressions of novelty, while it rescues admitted truths from the neglect caused by the very circumstance of their universal admission.

The history of man for the nine months preceding his birth would, probably, be far more interesting and contain events of greater moment than all the three score and ten years that follow it.

To believe and to understand are not diverse things, but the same things in different periods of growth.

Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process.

Until you understand a writer’s ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding.

There is a devilishly direct relationship between the significance of an idea and how nervous we become at the prospect of having to think about it.

Russia has cultivated an opaque network of patronage across the region that it uses to influence and direct decision- making.

Once you discover that you can, then you must. And it’s not easy. You have to take direct steps.

The tango is a direct expression of something that poets have often tried to state in words: the belief that a fight may be a celebration.

We look directly into our suffering rather than try to become happy. The happiness that arises from this approach is reliable.

It is to make it nurture and grow that I write my script- it is directing it that makes my tree blossom and bear fruit.

Movie directors, or should I say people who create things, are very greedy and they can never be satisfied… That’s why they can keep on working.

While the cameras are rolling, I rarely look directly at the actors, but focus my gaze somewhere else.