God is not the mere dead conception to which we have thus given utterance, but he is in himself pure Life.
A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness.
Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.
The exact measure of the progress of civilization is the degree in which the intelligence of the common mind has prevailed over wealth and brute force.
Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.
I have this assemblage of small facts, which looks like intelligence but no real depth of knowledge about anything. That's why I'm an actor.
I am drawn to women who are independent and creative, which is problematic because it's a struggle, a competition of careers. There's jealousy.
Patricia Nixon gave up a career to become a political wife. She rose to the pinnacle of glory and then fell to disgrace because of deeds over which she had neither control nor knowledge.
In a world in which the total of human knowledge is doubling about every ten years, our security can rest only on our ability to learn.
The true knowledge or science which exists nowhere but in the mind itself, has no other entity at all besides intelligibility; and therefore whatsoever is clearly intelligible, is absolutely true.
Wonder, connected with a principle of rational curiosity, is the source of all knowledge and discover, and it is a principle even of piety; but wonder which ends in wonder, and is satisfied with wonder, is the quality of an idiot.
I think most Americans understand that we went through a period in which American leadership was judged quite critically internationally.
Curiosity endows the people who have it with a generosity in argument and a serenity in their own mode of life which springs from their cheerful willingness to let life take the form it will.
A lot of people in spiritual life use the awareness of difference, and the spiritual glorification of difference, as a justification to indulge in that which is ultimately unreal.
We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we want another which will be eternal.
The aim is to postpone frailty, postpone degenerative disease, debilitation and so on and thereby shorten the period at the end of life, which is passed in a decrepit or disabled state, while extending life as a whole.
The task of a priest, in some respects, may be different today, but the principles upon which Herbert built his life as a priest are of universal application.
The extreme side of my personality, which I chose to sort of display, was snowballing and getting a life of its own. It was like looking in a mirror and not recognising myself.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
The first movie I did was 'Dan in Real Life,' which was directed by Peter Hedges, the same director who did 'The Odd Life of Timothy Green.'
Economy, prudence, and a simple life are the sure masters of need, and will often accomplish that which, their opposites, with a fortune at hand, will fail to do.
