Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

There are no war stories. I ended up a bombardier, but I never got overseas. And it wasn't because I was playing baseball either. It was just a series of things that went on.

I'd get 3-4 cheap home runs every year. You know, little 'wood shots' down either line. They would be pop flies in any other park. But, goodness me, they didn't count the number of long outs!

In New York, after that famous home run, they expected me to be up there every year. That homer raised me to a high level, with the top guys in the game.

I went into the Air Corps from 1943 through 1945.

When he asked if I would like to try second base, I thought, Hey, get me in the lineup.

I love the structural part of the writing process.

I'd pretty much given up hope of being published, so I just wrote the book I wanted to read.

There's a market for mysteries for adults. That feeling of opening a book and delving inside and not coming out until you've closed the book.

I simply love writing good stories, that's my passion.

In retrospect, it seems like everything in my life led to me becoming a writer. I just didn't realise it at the time.

Jest test it

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.

The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older.

An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.

The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love.

This above all, to refuse to be a victim.

A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.

A word after a word after a word is power.

We thought we were running away from the grownups, and now we are the grownups.

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?

Where words fail, music speaks.

Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers.

My life is a lovely story, happy and full of incident.

Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.

Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with short steps.

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

The wheel is come full circle.

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

Women are nothing but machines for producing children.

Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.

If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.

Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?

At the age of 15, a teacher had asked me what I wanted to do for a career, and without knowing why or even how I replied that I wanted to be a poet.

They had always told me that I wrote like a man.

For us Africans, literature must serve a purpose: to expose, embarrass, and fight corruption and authoritarianism. It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian.

It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.

People are worms, and even the God who created them is immensely bored with their antics.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come

Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.

Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

Men do communicate, often very directly, but women sometimes cannot accept how simple what we have to say is.

Fiction and poetry are my first loves, but the really beautiful lyrical essay can do so much that other forms cannot.

I truly believe that writing is a continuum - so the different genres and forms are simply stops along the same continuum. Different ideas that need to be expressed sometimes require different forms for the ideas to float better. I don't write essays as often as I should.

If I don't get at least one e-mail every ten minutes, I feel unloved. Even junk mail makes me feel seen. Sad, I know. Sigh.

I love essays, but they're not always the best way to communicate to a larger audience.

A man of courage is also full of faith. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

The Cemetery of Forgotten Books is a metaphor, not just for books but for ideas, for language, for knowledge, for beauty, for all the things that make us human, for collecting memory.

Barcelona is a very old city in which you can feel the weight of history; it is haunted by history. You cannot walk around it without perceiving it.

I've always ignored the labels people put on things.

Shirley Jackson's writings are a must for aficionados of the gothic and of good literature.

With 'The Angel's Game', there was a lot of pressure from the expectations - expectations from the book industry and from readers; it's natural.

I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am skeptical as to its results.

I am a misanthrope and yet utterly benevolent, have more than one screw loose yet am a super-idealist who digests philosophy more efficiently than food.

Home is where I work, and I work everywhere.

One can state, without exaggeration, that the observation of and the search for similarities and differences are the basis of all human knowledge.

The first time I saw nitroglycerine was in the beginning of the Crimean War. Professor Zinin in St. Petersburg exhibited some to my father and me, and struck some on an anvil to show that only the part touched by the hammer exploded without spreading.