A man's country is not a certain area of land of mountains rivers and woods but it is a principle and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine though I have not quarrelled with him?

Having contemplated this admirable grove I proceeded towards the shrubberies on the banks of the river and though it was now late in December the aromatic groves appeared in full bloom.

What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt - it is sure to get where it is going and it doesn't want to go anywhere else.

Forests lakes and rivers clouds and winds stars and flowers stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes - every form of animate or inanimate existence leaves its impress upon the soul of man.

Earth and sky woods and fields lakes and rivers the mountain and the sea are excellent schoolmasters and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

I've found that if you wear a beret people think you're either a cabdriver or a producer of dirty movies.

It takes more than driving to become an IndyCar driver. Gone are the days when drivers show up Friday morning and go home Sunday night. We're all integral to our partnerships commercially motorsports. We're as much champions in the boardroom as we are on the racetrack.

You can't have bank holding companies acting as hedge funds. You can't have them taking a million-dollar pension plan for Joe Schmo the bus driver and treat it with the same risk appetite that you treat George Soros' pocket money. It's fundamentally ridiculous.

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish but it will not replace you as the driver.

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains at the huge waves of the sea at the long courses of the rivers at the vast compass of the ocean at the circular motions of the stars and they pass by themselves without wondering.

Love is the river of life in the world.

I'll love you dear I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street.

I spent many years trying to write a lot like Ben Folds or John Lennon or Rivers Cuomo. I think that's healthy when you're learning to write and seeing how chords fit together and how songs take shape.

For 'So Cold the River ' I'm actually working on adapting the book with Scott Silver who was just nominated for an Oscar for 'The Fighter ' and who also wrote '8 Mile ' which I think is a terrific screenplay. The chance to work with Scott is a tremendous pleasure and I'm learning a lot.

In the end my pursuit of the elusive New York State driver's license became about much more than a divorced woman's learning to drive for the first time.

After you start learning all about the mechanics of piloting a riverboat you stop seeing all the pretty sunsets and you start thinking about the weather.