The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create - - - so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating. |
The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it. |
The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible - and achieve it, generation after generation. |
To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death. |
To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth. |
To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind. |
We send missionaries to China so the Chinese can get to heaven, but we won't let them into our country. |
We should so provide for old age that it may have no urgent wants of this world to absorb it from meditation on the next. It is awful to see the lean hands of dotage making a coffer of the grave. |
What is a neglected child? He is a child not planned for, not wanted. Neglect begins, therefore, before he is born. |
When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail. |
When men destroy their old gods they will find new ones to take their place. |
You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea. |
You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea. |
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings. |
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings. |