Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out.

We call a fig a fig, and a skiff a skiff.

Who did leave His Father's throne, To assume thy flesh and bone? Had He life, or had He none? If he had not liv'd for thee, Thou hadst died most wretchedly And two deaths had been thy fee.

I refused to attend his funeral. But I wrote a very nice letter explaining that I approved of it.

My country is the world; my countrymen are mankind.

You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays.

If thou art rich, thou'rt poor, For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows, Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee.

Unbeing dead isn't being alive.

It is as painful perhaps to be awakened from a vision as to be born.

The pen is the tongue of the mind.

For to me every sort of peace with the citizens seemed to be of more service than civil war.

Keep quiet. Do your work in the world, but inwardly keep quiet. Then all will come to you.

Hating someone is like burning down your house to get rid of a rat.

It is Lucifer, The son of mystery; And since God suffers him to be, He, too, is God's minister, And labors for some good By us not understood.

Who all in raptures their own works rehearse, And drawl out measur'd prose, which they call verse.

One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.

Unconscious humor.

I've been a woman for a little over 50 years and have gotten over my initial astonishment. As for conducting an orchestra, that's a job where I don't think sex plays much part.

The window to the world can be covered by a newspaper. - Unkempt Thoughts, 1962.

Language is not only the vehicle of thought, it is a great and efficient instrument in thinking.