For a long time all I wanted for Christmas were books about outdoor survival. I was convinced that the woods were calling me. I camped a lot I took classes. At 18 I told myself if I don't live in the woods by myself by the time I'm 25 I have failed.

The fact that the church is convinced of not having the right to confer priestly ordination on women is now considered by some as irreconcilable with the European Constitution.

Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.

Shall we ever see the 10 million things of the universe simultaneously in order to be the all? I am convinced that to live is to travel towards the world's end.

I'm convinced that the man who has learned to meditate upon the Lord will be able to run on his feet and walk in his spirit. Although he may be hurried by his vocation that's not the issue. The issue is how fast his spirit is going. To slow it down takes a period of time.

I spent the first fourteen years of my life convinced that my looks were hideous. Adolescence is painful for everyone I know but mine was plain weird.

As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too.

In 1948 I entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology undecided between studies of chemistry and physics but my first year convinced me that physics was more interesting to me.

Writing I'm convinced should be a subversive activity - frowned on by the authorities - and not one cooed over and praised beyond common sense by some teacher.

I've been a sports fan all my life and like most other actors I'm convinced I could have been a pro athlete if Hollywood hadn't come calling.

Anarchists are socialists because they want the improvement of society and they are communists because they are convinced that such a transformation of society can only result from the establishment of a commonwealth of property.

But I am convinced that those Jews who stand aside today with a malicious smile and with their hands in their trousers' pockets will also want to dwell in our beautiful home.

I'm really convinced that our descendants a century or two from now will look back at us with the same pity that we have toward the people in the field of science two centuries ago.

I'm convinced I got signed because of who I am. And it makes me sad.

Every fundamentalist movement I've studied in Judaism Christianity and Islam is convinced at some gut visceral level that secular liberal society wants to wipe out religion.

We know too much and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion and so is our religion.

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.

Power is something of which I am convinced there is no innocence this side of the womb.

I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature and that power whether vested in many or a few is ever grasping and like the grave cries 'Give give.'

All through the years since World War II the Japanese people have I am convinced made strenuous efforts to preserve and promote world peace contributing to the progress and prosperity of mankind.

America's state religion is patriotism a phenomenon which has convinced many of the citizenry that 'treason' is morally worse than murder or rape.

Early in the morning I fell in love with the girl that later on became my wife. At that time we were so naive. I wanted to charm her so I read her Capital by Marx. I thought somehow she would be convinced by the strength of his criticism about capital.

I'm not convinced about marriage. Divorce is so easy and that fact that gay people are not allowed to marry takes much of the meaning out of it. Committing yourself to one person is sacred.

Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitudes toward life. The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.

I thought I was learning about show business. The more painful it was the more important I thought the experience must be. Hating it I convinced myself it must be invaluable.

Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done.

I am convinced that your Mayor must take the leadership role in education too.

The more I have studied Lincoln the more I have followed his thought processes the more I am convinced that he understood leadership better than any other American president.

I've convinced myself - I hope I'm right - that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth.

Do parents sit down and tell their kids everything? I don't know. I don't know. I've convinced myself - I hope I'm right - that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth.