All of us are citizens in a republic much larger than the Republic of America. It is the Republic of Letters, a realm of the mind that extends everywhere, without police, national boundaries, or disciplinary frontiers.
People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.
There were two mentalities, and both mentalities had to change. There was what I called the Afrikaner mind set of the Unionist politicians, which was holding all power in their own hands, and discriminating, and their objective was to protect their identity.
I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
I suppose in the back of my mind I was always one of those guys who had a disdain for money. It had a value if you wanted to buy something, but if you didn't want to buy something, you didn't need it.
Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.
A child is owed the greatest respect; if you have ever have something disgraceful in mind, don't ignore your son's tender years.
To my mind, 'Dear Brutus' stands halfway between Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's 'Into the Woods'. Like them, it is a play about enchantment and disillusion, dreams and reality.
It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and to prefer things in measure to things in excess.
Everyone's mind wanders, without doubt, and we always have to start over. Everyone resists or dislikes the thought of or is too tired to meditate at times, and we have to be able to begin again.
Engineering stimulates the mind. Kids get bored easily. They have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things. When the schools can offer that, you'll have an engineer for life.
Faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other.
When the mind withdraws into itself and dispenses with facts it makes only chaos.
The trick to being a novelist is to act like an iceberg. Make it seem as if you're displaying only one-tenth of what you know, and the other nine-tenths isn't visible and never mind if that part is pure styrofoam!
In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.
I don't mind if my performances get dissected and people criticise what I've done on the pitch. They can talk about my game 24/7 for all I care. And a lot of those opinions and criticisms may actually be right. So I don't mind that.
The mind is but too naturally prone to pleasure, but too easily yielded to dissipation.
If western culture is shown to be rich, it is because, even before the Enlightenment, it has tried to 'dissolve' harmful simplifications through inquiry and the critical mind.
As my mind can conceive of more good, the barriers and blocks dissolve. My life becomes full of little miracles popping up out of the blue.
I'm a firm believer in the connection between the body and the mind: feed one, feed both. I like to run, but only short distances, and fast. I'm no good at long distance. More than six miles, and the knees start to go.
