The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

Every creature is better alive than dead men and moose and pine trees and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

The legal principle placing the burden of proof on accusers rather than the accused can be traced back to Second and Third Century Roman jurist Julius Paulus Prudentissimus. Yet this ancient concept which forms the legal and moral cornerstone of the American judicial system is quickly being undermined in the name of 'national security.'

A basic rule of life for reporters is that you should spend your time talking with and learning about people who are not sending you press releases rather than those who are.

I sat staring staring staring - half lost learning a new language or rather the same language in a different dialect. So still were the big woods where I sat sound might not yet have been born.

I've seen a lot of the United States having stayed in so many different cities and towns for work. It's such a strange and fascinating country and instead of learning about it through a textbook I would rather discover its history and traditions and institutions through fiction and nonfiction writers.

I'm interested in learning more about myself and what I value in myself and letting that be the beautiful part of me rather than putting on the makeup or wearing the right designer.

Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius who are often too full to be exact and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader rather than be at the pains of stringing them.

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

We are the creative force of our life and through our own decisions rather than our conditions if we carefully learn to do certain things we can accomplish those goals.

I have spent a lifetime watching kids make mistakes because they were not trained or well led or properly motivated to do well. I never faulted the kids rather I saw opportunity to train to motivate to improve leadership - not to punish the individual.

Under the leadership of this President the state of the union is not strong. We are being pulled apart rather than pulling together. Our democracy is suffering from the choices being made and yet we are offered the same tired excuses and unrealistic analyses.

Many citizens see all the leadership of these large institutions together in a conspiracy against them rather than in any adversary relationship with each other.

The things journalists should pay attention to are the issues the political leadership agrees on rather than to their supposed antagonisms.

So I think democracy in the long-term in our countries will survive if it comes to be associated with leadership will not survive if democracy plus media brings to us more and more followship rather than leadership.

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense in fact the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.

Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.

With all due respect to lawyers it's wonderful that you have this intricate knowledge. You break down words to the nth degree. And sometimes I find it rather disgusting. And it goes on and on.

We are rather in the position that used to exist at the BBC where you feel that you can pick up the phone to people who are experts in their field and they will be very favourably disposed to you and share their knowledge.

The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge.

If on occasion the knowledge brought by science leads to an unhappy end this is not to the discredit of science but is rather an indication of an imperfect ability to use wisely the gifts placed within our hands.

My musical knowledge is so bad it's embarrassing. When composers discuss music with someone as primitive as myself they have to talk about it in terms of senses and emotion rather than keys and tempo.

But because many endeavor to get knowledge rather than to live well they are often deceived and reap little or no benefit from their labor.

In the past I used to counter any such notions by asking myself: 'Would you really want President Hattersley?' I now find that possibility rather cheers me up. With his chubby Dickensian features and his knowledge of T.H. Green and other harmless leftish political classics Hattersley might not be such a bad thing after all.