The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

The separation of church and state is a source of strength, but the conscience of our nation does not call for separation between men of state and faith in the Supreme Being.

I report to you that our country is challenged at home and abroad: that it is our will that is being tried and not our strength; our sense of purpose and not our ability to achieve a better America.

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: 'President Can't Swim.'

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.

I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one's wife happy. First, let her think she's having her own way. And second, let her have it.

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

I seldom think of politics more than eighteen hours a day.

One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President.

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous.

The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.

You aren't learning anything when you're talking.

Poverty must not be a bar to learning and learning must offer an escape from poverty.

The moon and other celestial bodies should be free for exploration and use by all countries. No country should be permitted to advance a claim of sovereignty.

In our home there was always prayer - aloud, proud and unapologetic.

The waking mind is the least serviceable in the arts.

Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.

The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.

No matter how vast, how total, the failure of man here on earth, the work of man will be resumed elsewhere. War leaders talk of resuming operations on this front and that, but man's front embraces the whole universe.

All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.

The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love.

In the attempt to defeat death man has been inevitably obliged to defeat life, for the two are inextricably related. Life moves on to death, and to deny one is to deny the other.

Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.

True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.

Sin, guilt, neurosis; they are one and the same, the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.

The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way.

The legal system is often a mystery, and we, its priests, preside over rituals baffling to everyday citizens.

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.

Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense.

Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don't take it too seriously.

If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.

An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.

I have never been able to look upon America as young and vital but rather as prematurely old, as a fruit which rotted before it had a chance to ripen.

Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: it comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur.

Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything.

Los Angeles gives one the feeling of the future more strongly than any city I know of. A bad future, too, like something out of Fritz Lang's feeble imagination.

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.

Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one.

Man should not try to avoid stress any more than he would shun food, love or exercise.

A positive attitude can really make dreams come true - it did for me.

I left school on my 15th birthday.

All pictures are unnatural. All pictures are sad because they're about dead people. Paintings you don't think of in a special time or with a specific event. With photos I always think I'm looking at something dead.

Anybody can be a great photographer if they zoom in enough on what they love.

The trouble with people like Tony Blair is they get confused, they think intelligence is education when they're two different things.

The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading.

London changes because of money. It's real estate. If they can build some offices or expensive apartments they will, it's money that changes everything in a city.

The skull is nature's sculpture.