"He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief"

"If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses"

"I said when I came into office that I don't want to be a great leader; I want to be a good democrat"

"The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you"

"Great effort from great motives is the best definition of a happy life"

"Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day"

"Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm"

"It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice"

"We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it"

"Raising children is an incredibly hard and risky business in which no cumulative wisdom is gained: each generation repeats the mistakes the previous one made"

"Now we maintain that we cannot be afford to be concerned about 6 percent of the children in this country, black children, who you allow to come into white schools. We have 94 percent who still live in shacks. We are going to be concerned about those 94 percent"