Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline.
The rare moment is not the moment when there is something worth looking at, but the moment when we are capable of seeing.
Custom has furnished the only basis which ethics have ever had.
In our hearts those of us who know anything worth knowing know that in March a new year begins, and if we plan any new leaves, it will be when the rest of Nature is planning them too.
And the thing which is missing is love, some feeling for, as well as some understanding of, the inclusive community of rocks and soils, plants and animals, of which we are a part.
It is disastrous to own more of anything than you can possess, and it is one of the most fundamental laws of human nature that our power actually to possess is limited.
Man is the only one in whom the instinct of life falters long enough to enable it to ask the question "Why?
I don't care where I'm from, nor where I'm going. From hell to hell.
The most important thing in comedy - apart from empathy, which I think is important even if disguised - is surprise. I like surprising people with the fact that something's even a joke at all.
I was dating a guy once who spoke rudely to a taxi driver. I got out of the cab and walked home. Treat people with respect. I've waited tables, and that's why I just exceedingly overtip. It's exhausting work.
I used to have nightmares when I was a little kid that I woke up prematurely and opened all the Christmas presents. And then I would be so relieved when I woke up and I realized that I hadn't done it.