One of the best descriptions of the type of writer I am was given by Tom Paulin, who described himself as a 'binge' writer - like a binge drinker. I go on binges.
Attacks on a politician's identity - questioning Romney's religion, say, or Obama's birthplace - tend to come when an opponent is desperate and can't sell himself.
'Solomon Creed' is a man who knows everything about everything but nothing about himself and is on a journey of redemption to try and reclaim his identity.
Man cannot degrade woman without himself falling into degradation; he cannot elevate her without at the same time elevating himself.
When I'm interviewing someone, I want to make sure that he thought enough to take care of himself - to dress appropriately and to groom himself properly.
To this day, the only argument against Obama that critics can seem to come up with involves admitting he's better than them - though they certainly season it with some racism. You know, he's that lucky black man who actually appeals to the populace. He's that elitist who got himself off food stamps and into Harvard.
Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.
Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.
No writer, no matter how gifted, immortalizes himself unless he has crystallized into expressive and original phrase the eternal sentiments and yearnings of the human heart.
The most powerful person is he who is able to do least himself and burden others most with the things for which he lends his name and pockets the credit.
In the worst memoirs, you can feel the author justifying himself - forgiving himself - in every paragraph. In the best memoirs, the author is tougher on him- or herself than his or her readers will ever be.
It is terrible to destroy a person's picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction.
Maybe Trump himself will be voted out through impeachment, right?
I like a spirituality with a God that knows how to drive a car, that knows how to take his girl to the dance club, dance all night, have a little drink, kiss the kid when they come back in and go to sleep. God doesn't need a chauffeur - he needs to drive himself.
Jerry and I always felt that the character was enjoying himself. He was having fun: he wasn't taking himself seriously. It was always a lark for him, as you can see in my early drawings.
Who hath not known ill fortune, never knew himself, or his own virtue.
A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper.
It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.
He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.
The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself.
The candidate was required to prepare himself by confession, fasting, and passing the night in prayer.
Fancy the happiness of Pinocchio on finding himself free! Without saying yes or no, he fled from the city and set out on the road that was to take him back to the house of the lovely Fairy.
When you understand what you see, you will no longer be children. You will know that life is pain, that each of us hangs always upon the cross of himself. And when you know that this is true of every man, woman and child on earth, you will be wiser.
What gives it its human character is that the individual through language addresses himself in the role of the others in the group and thus becomes aware of them in his own conduct.
People are roasting each other at parties, at work events, around the fire. It's so fun. People are busting each other's chops, and it's a sign of affection, truly. It's a true test of love and friendship: can you make a man laugh at himself? So what makes a good burn? Go after targets you love and respect. And hit 'em hard.
Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another.
The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.
Many a man is praised for his reserve and so-called shyness when he is simply too proud to risk making a fool of himself.
Scouting teaches a boy to take care of himself and stand on his own two feet.
He who devotes sixteen hours a day to hard study may become at sixty as wise as he thought himself at twenty.
The real man is one who always finds excuses for others, but never excuses himself.
Christ himself wrote nothing, but furnished endless material for books and songs of gratitude and praise.
The man whose life is devoted to paperwork has lost the initiative. He is dealing with things that are brought to his notice, having ceased to notice anything for himself.
An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature.
In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for 'finding himself.' If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.
I had a coach that was not a great player, but he taught with kids and juniors so that by the time he was 50 he was great. He helped me make the top 5 in the world and yet he wasn't a great player himself.
