Russell Baker

"Youth is a wonderfully dangerous time when you don't know what you can't do."

"The hardest thing in writing is knowing what to leave out."

"We spend our youth learning to live and the rest of our life learning not to."

"Death is the only truly democratic institution we have."

"A writer's main job is to entertain, but a writer's responsibility is to tell the truth."

"The most important thing is not the destination but the quality of the journey."

"There is no substitute for good manners, though almost everyone is trying."

"The purpose of satire is to hold a mirror up to society and make people uncomfortable with themselves."

"We are all prisoners of our own experience, unable to truly know another person's reality."

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

"Time is the thing that takes things away, including your patience."

"A successful life is one where you've helped more people than you've hindered."

"Gratitude is the memory of the heart."

"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places."

"In writing, as in life, substance is more important than style, though style helps."

"Change is only painful if you resist it; flow with it and it becomes growth."

"The capacity to suffer is inseparable from the capacity to love."

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new, as the saying goes."

"The comfort of the rich depends on an abundant supply of the poor."

"Power is the ability to make others do what you want them to do."

"There is something liberating about reaching an age where you no longer need to prove anything."

"The pursuit of happiness is a right, but happiness itself must be earned."

"A moment of truth is when you must choose between your beliefs and your comfort."

"In the presence of nature, even the most self-absorbed person feels small and humble."

"Music is the language of the soul, capable of expressing what words cannot."

"Faith is betting your life that there is more to life than just what we can measure."

"Leadership is not about being in charge; it's about taking care of those in your charge."

"The imagination is not something used only by artists; it is essential to all human beings."

"Science is organized knowledge; wisdom is organized life."

"A relationship survives on what is given, but it thrives on what is forgiven."