Keep things at arm's length... If you let anything come too near you want to hold on to it. And there is nothing a man can hold on to.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

That which costs little is less valued.

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.

Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.

Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.

The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.

Before I speak, I have something important to say.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

External nature is only internal nature writ large.

We can work together for a better world with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness of humankind.

Jests that give pains are not jests.

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.

The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it.

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.

The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.