There is no gambling like politics.

The services in wartime are fit only for desperadoes, but in peace are only fit for fools.

In politics nothing is contemptible.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

Finality is not the language of politics.

King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.

My objection to Liberalism is this that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind namely, politics of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.

Power has only one duty - to secure the social welfare of the People.

Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.

It destroys one's nerves to be amiable every day to the same human being.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.

Justice is truth in action.

Silence is the mother of truth.

Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning.

A University should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning.

As for our majority... one is enough.

A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance.

I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.

Duty cannot exist without faith.

Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.

The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

To cement a new friendship, especially between foreigners or persons of a different social world, a spark with which both were secretly charged must fly from person to person, and cut across the accidents of place and time.

Friendship is the most important thing of all.

Growing up in a group home, and with an undiagnosed learning disability to boot, the odds of success were not on my side. But when I joined the high school football team, I learned the value of discipline, focus, persistence, and teamwork - all skills that have proven vital to my career as a C.E.O. and social entrepreneur.

Our education system is increasingly embracing a black-and-white way of thinking, in which 'learning' and 'play' are diametrically opposed. 'Learning' is the serious stuff that happens inside a classroom and can be measured via multiple choice questions and a No. 2 pencil. 'Play' is frivolous, fun, and worst of all, optional.

Only one in five children in the U.S. lives within walking distance of a park. Many more lack access to a quality early childhood education that provides ample time and space to play.

As parents, we need to send our kids back to 'old-fashioned' outdoor summer camps, which have been on the decline as the demand for sports and academics-based camps has risen. We need to fight budget cuts to public parks programs and resist closures of public swimming pools and playgrounds.

We are raising today's children in sterile, risk-averse and highly structured environments. In so doing, we are failing to cultivate artists, pioneers and entrepreneurs, and instead cultivating a generation of children who can follow the rules in organized sports games, sit for hours in front of screens and mark bubbles on standardized tests.

In an era of parental paranoia, lawsuit mania and testing frenzy, we are failing to inspire our children's curiosity, creativity, and imagination. We are denying them opportunities to tinker, discover, and explore - in short, to play.

Richard Donner's friendship and guidance showed me that there's more to life than being an actor.

A passion for politics stems usually from an insatiable need, either for power, or for friendship and adulation, or a combination of both.

I loved my 17 years with R.E.M., but I'm ready to reflect, assess and move on to a different phase of my life. The four of us will continue our close friendship, and I look forward to hearing their future efforts as the world's biggest R.E.M. fan.

Physically my brain is in great shape. My motor functions are fine, but I think going through the whole ordeal... coming pretty close to death, may have affected my priorities.

I think it's not really difficult to write about love. We've been saying the same thing over and over for so many years. But it depends on how honest it is and how good you make it feel. You can say 'I love you' in a trillion ways, and it can always sound different or feel different.

Lyrics can be important, but ultimately, what pulls people in on a song is melody and the tracks and the way music feels.

The friendship of Shostakovich cast a brilliant light over my whole life and whose spiritual qualities captured my soul once and for all time.

Well, right now, I'm very fascinated with 1920s Berlin. I mean, probably the more interesting thing would be to go to the beginning of civilization or precivilization - like polytheistic times. It would be interesting to see what came before modern religion and culture - what circumstances created the environment or the need for it.

I don't know who would not classify themselves as a romantic. I think that would be sort of sad.

I always think the most romantic books or films are the ones where the romance doesn't happen, because it makes your heart ache so much watching it.

I don't love studying. I hate studying. I like learning. Learning is beautiful.

Smart women love smart men more than smart men love smart women.

Everyone dreams of living in Paris.

Cute is when a person's personality shines through their looks. Like in the way they walk, every time you see them you just want to run up and hug them.

I'm not convinced about marriage. Divorce is so easy, and that fact that gay people are not allowed to marry takes much of the meaning out of it. Committing yourself to one person is sacred.

When I was in nursery school, the teachers asked me, y'know, 'What does your dad do for a living?' So I said 'He helps women get pregnant!' They called my mom and they were like, 'What exactly does your husband do?'

Going to a party, for me, is as much a learning experience as, you know, sitting in a lecture.

Where I live, nobody who's fourteen is having sex and doing major drugs. And I think if you see it in the movies, you may be influenced by it. I think it's so important to preserve your innocence.