Christmas is taken very seriously in this household. I believe in Father Christmas and there's no way I'd do anything to undermine that belief.

The biggest risk I've ever taken is going on American Idol and trying to be myself. I wasn't going to try too hard to conform and I knew that it could possibly not work out.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

I feel sorry... for people who've had skinny privilege and then have it taken away from them. I have had a lifetime to adjust to seeing how people treat women who aren't their idea of beautiful and therefore aren't their idea of useful and I had to find ways to become useful to myself.

Then I read Little Women and of course like a lot of really young girls I was very taken with Jo - Jo being the writer and the misfit.

I love vampire stories. That's why I did the movie. Women especially were taken with that movie-even more so when it came out on video.

Ageism works in both directions. As a teenager in the public eye people would talk condescendingly to me. When you get older there's this feeling that you have to start carving up your face and body. Right now I'm in the middle ground - I think women in their thirties are taken seriously.

Every indication of wisdom taken from the effect is equally an indication of power to execute what wisdom planned.

I covered my face because they had taken my wisdom teeth out.

Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom if you listen.

I think the International Criminal Court could be a threat to American security interests because the prosecutor of the court has enormous discretion in going after war crimes. And the way the Statute of Rome is written responsibility for war crimes can be taken all the way up the chain of command.

The reason that war is such a fascinating subject for writers is because it's a revealer. Put a bunch of people in an adrenaline-fuelled life-or-death situation and their fundamental behaviours are exposed the scrim is taken away and the motivations behind each personality come out to play.

There is a strong tendency in the United States to rally round the flag and their troops no matter how mistaken the war.

There's an assault on human sexuality as Judge Scalia said they've taken sides in the culture war and on top of that if we have a democracy the democratic processes should be that we can elect representatives who will share our point of view and vote those things into law.

Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defense can be just.

I see that the path of progress has never taken a straight line but has always been a zigzag course amid the conflicting forces of right and wrong truth and error justice and injustice cruelty and mercy.

When I can look life in the eyes grown calm and very coldly wise life will have given me the truth and taken in exchange - my youth.

Seldom very seldom does complete truth belong to any human disclosure seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.

We should not be so taken up in the search for truth as to neglect the needful duties of active life for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.

Millions have been taken from me. If you are not on top of it and you make a lot of money and you trust business managers then yes money will be taken from you.

Now the first step has to be taken the step towards democracy. This step is full of risks and requires trust on all sides. We don't know where it will lead. But if we just stand still we will have no chance of escaping the violence.

America is a country ready to be taken in fact longing to be taken by political leaders ready to restore democracy and trust to the political process.

Now therefore the Directors of the company are hereby ordered to see that precautions are taken to make travel on said railroad perfectly safe by using a screw with at least twenty-four inches diameter.

As the President has indicated my life has been a life of travel - for 60 years constantly moving over the wide world on journeys which first and last have taken me to 83 countries and what is more significant to most of them again and again.

I'm terrified of bugs and I travel with sprays lotions potions the lot. I have to check the room before I go to sleep and if I come across a bug and fail to remove it I have to sleep in a separate room as I'm paranoid that I'll be taken advantage of as I sleep.

A journey by Sea and Land Five Hundred Miles is not undertaken without money.

I'm thankful for the incredible advances in medicine that have taken place during my lifetime. I almost certainly wouldn't still be here if it weren't for them.

The technology is really where all of the changes have taken place but the fundamentals of a good story being the basis of every good picture and really the only basis still remains the rule more so today I think because we've unfortunately weaned an audience from birth to kind of mindless movies.

Many people mistakenly think a new technology cancels out an old one.

I got to get the right people in the right job. Because a lot of costs can be taken out in the context of your administration without the legislature.For example using technology to do more with less. Using technology to fight fraud. Reorganizing and streamlining can be done within the context of the administration.