But that initial, comet-blazing-across-the-sky, Big Idea is only the beginning. Each book is composed of a mosaic of thousands of little ideas, ideas that invariably come to me at two in the morning when my alarm is set for seven.

If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work ... the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp ... The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious.

She thought about her life and how lost she'd felt for most of it. She thought about the way that all truths she'd been taught to consider valuable invariably conflicted with the world as it was actually lived. How could a person be so utterly lost, yet remain living?

As a writer and a poet, I like listening rather than talking. Invariably I like to listen to the life stories and instances of many people whom I meet in life. And the people I meet shape the characters and the stories that I write.

The paradox in Christian truth is invariably due to the fact that it is the truth that exists for God. The standard of measure and the end is superhuman; and there is only one relationship possible: faith.

The person who comes up to you and makes the most noise and is the most intrusive is invariably the person in the room who has no respect for you at all and it's really all about them.

A new father quickly learns that his child invariably comes to the bathroom at precisely the times when he's in there as if he needed company. The only way for this father to be certain of bathroom privacy is to shave at the gas station.

I think it will be found that experience the true source and foundation of all knowledge invariably confirms its truth.

A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.

His imagination conceived and bore - worlds but nothing in these worlds became alive until he discovered its true and living name. The name was the breath of life and sooner or later he invariably found it.

The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated in any other manner.

The founders of a new colony whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery and another portion as the site of a prison.

Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.

Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another.

At every turn when humanity is asked the question 'Do you want temporary economic gain or long-term environmental loss which one do you prefer ' we invariably choose the money.

Also note that invariably when we design something that can be used by those with disabilities we often make it better for everyone.

I am invariably late for appointments - sometimes as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong and too pleasing.

I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can't be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort.

Beauty of whatever kind in its supreme development invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

The anger that appears to be building up between the sexes becomes more virulent with every day that passes. And far from women taking the blame... the fact is that men are invariably portrayed as the bad guys. Being a good man is like being a good Nazi.