"It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled."

“And you get that little endorphin buzz, it's great. Why do you think Einstein looked like that? I don't think he was going 'You know this is some dynamite weed! It's all relative you know'.”

“I'm not a Twinkie lover. I don't do sugar or dairy either.”

“Aristotle is the last Greek philosopher who faces the world cheerfully; after him, all have, in one form or another, a philosophy of retreat.”

“When the clouds shake their hyssops, and the rain Like holy water falls upon the plain, 'Tis sweet to gaze upon the springing grain And see your harvest born. And sweet the little breeze of melody The blackbord puffs upon the budding tree, While the wild poppy lights upon the lea And blazes 'mid the corn.”

Source : Francis Ledwidge (1997). “The complete poems”, The Goldsmith Press Ltd

“If you learn one thing from having lived through decades of changing views, it is that all predictions are necessarily false.”

Source : "Honored literary scholar M.H. Abrams continues his labors (of love)". Interview with Linda Grace-Kobas, news.cornell.edu. June 11, 1999.

“Love and violence-not to conquer one with the other but to live with both, that's what I've learned. Each pulling me a different way. If I relax my struggles they don't tear me in two, but lift me up.”

“I feel blessed to have an opportunity to try out for a second Olympics team and if it doesn't work out, hey I gave it my all.”

“What people really want to know from their doctor is, are you going to make me feel better? And what they really want to know from a president are, are you going to give me some security when it comes to my work? Because if I'm not working, my family is in trouble. And when I am working, the fact of the matter is, my whole family is doing better.”