British politics, as the world knows, is a joke. Yet it's rarely funny.

The solo years have been more meaningful to the audiences than the Smiths years, but the press in England only write about me in relation to the Smiths era.

As a very small child I found recorded noise and the solitary singer beneath the spotlight so dramatic and so brave... walking the plank... willingly... It was sink or swim. The very notion of standing there, alone, I found beautiful.

You have to, at least from a distance, look as if you know what you're doing, and I can manage that.

You can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies.

If you love animals, obviously it doesn't make sense to hurt them.

I find that it isn't wise to attempt to judge people on their public persona, and even on the music they make. Because I've met so many people whose music I cannot stand, and they're very nice. At the same time, I've met people whose music I've loved, and they're not the person you've invested all this emotion in.

Obviously Madonna reinforces everything absurd and offensive.

The paradox is that I have no love for myself as a human being, but I have immense pride in the music I make, and I believe it has an important place. Others do, too, and the thousands of people with Morrissey tattoos certainly proves something.

I have no love for myself as a human being, but I have immense pride in the music I make.

I didn't really see the British punk movement, if that's what it was, as wildly original, because I had been listening so intently to all the New York music since 1973, really.

I hated the royal wedding.

I feel undefinable actually.

I don't necessarily think that the world should know everything, and even if you consider yourself to be extremely honest, that doesn't mean you have to blurt everything out all the time.

I don't iron anything. Never have and never will.

Smiths songs certainly have an astonishing afterlife.

God knows Himself and every created thing perfectly. Not a blade of grass or the tiniest insect escapes His eye.

We live in an age of technology and science that demands proof, and yet we desire mystery. But when God gives us mystery, we seek to destroy it by gross indifference or childish reasoning.

Each angel that God created was in himself a masterpiece. Each one possessed his own degree of intelligence and his own beauty.

Our lack of forgiveness makes us hate, and our lack of compassion makes us hard-hearted. Pride in our hearts makes us resentful and keeps our memory in a constant whirlwind of passion and self-pity.

When we begin to build walls of prejudice, hatred, pride, and self-indulgence around ourselves, we are more surely imprisoned than any prisoner behind concrete walls and iron bars.

Saints are ordinary people who do what they do for the love of Jesus, say what they must say without fear, love their neighbor even when they are cursed by him, and live without regret over yesterday or fear of tomorrow.

Every time I say 'no' to a small temptation, I strengthen my will to say 'no' to a greater one.

I am not like a pebble on the beach - a grain of sand on the seashore or just one of millions of human beings past, present and future. No, I am a unique human being loved by God as if I were an only child - the only fruit of his creative powers.

Every moment of life is like a sacrament in which we can receive God. It is a channel through which God speaks to us, forms us, and directs us.

Holiness of life is not the privilege of a chosen few - it is the obligation, the call, and the will of God for every Christian.

I do not ask for the riches that perish or the fame that fades away like a morning mist.

A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible reality.

Men climb mountains, scale heights, venture into the unexplored to prove to other men it can be done.

Our memories are our own, and we cannot blame anything or anyone in the past for any pain dwelling there. If we open the door to them or keep hashing over past incidents in our minds, we have only ourselves to blame.

The wisdom of God is so great that He also knows exactly what I would think and do under every possible circumstance and situation, and he placed me in that state of life and situation best suited for my salvation.

Every retarded, deformed, crippled, handicapped, or senile person, who has been baptized, is a powerhouse for good in a wicked world by reason of the grace of God that dwells in his soul.

Obedience is a strong virtue, capable of making me master of my emotions by giving me more strength to conquer my pride as I submit to those above me out of respect for their God-given authority and those below me out of love.

Salvation brings the soul a deep awareness of God's love. Life takes on more meaning, for it now has a purpose.

The Christian experiences and lives a paradox. He possesses joy in sorrow, fulfillment in exile, light in darkness, peace in turmoil, consolation in dryness, contentment in pain and hope in desolation.

Saints are ordinary people who love Jesus, try to be like him, are faithful to the duties of their state in life, sacrifice themselves for their neighbor, and keep their hearts and minds free of this world.

The woman is a gentle, loving bond who encourages, consoles, builds, reconciles, and makes all things new and vibrant. The woman is strength in time of suffering, courageous in failure, intuitive in time of danger. A woman is ingenuous when all fails, resourceful in times of want, and a true helpmate for man.

Love has been defined, analyzed, explained and excused. It has been the cause of wars, feuds, heroism, martyrdom, inordinate passion, and beautiful friendships. It pulls two people of opposite temperaments together into a married state and permits them to live happily. It makes friends understand each other without the necessity of words.

Love is an emotional feeling on a human level and a faith experience on a supernatural level.

Man can and does rationalize his sins. He finds reasons for all his weakness, invents excuses that first calm and then deaden his conscience. He blames God, society, education, and environment for his wrong doing.

Jesus showed me what it means to be holy - he did his father's will no matter how difficult it was to accomplish.

Death at times seems like a dark tunnel to be traveled, and the future seems bleak.

Any form of over-indulgence creates within the body warning signs of destruction.

When our weaknesses affect health and friendship, we are very much aware of their existence.

I must listen as God speaks to my soul through good thoughts, inspirations, and intuitions.

We often forget that everything we see, animate or inanimate, is a visual manifestation of the work of our invisible God. We have become so accustomed to trees, mountains, sky, air, water, flowers, animals, vegetables and people that we no longer see them for what they are - God's work.

Two of man's basic needs are to love and to share. Both of these needs are satisfied in greater or lesser degree by friendship.

I must not permit the evil capabilities of human nature to sour my faith in the tremendous good that is possible despite the frailty of that nature.

We live in an age that stresses personal goals, careers, happiness, work and religion. The emphasis is on the individual and how best that individual can satisfy himself.

Mary's life was a perfect imitation of Jesus. She was humble, hidden, sorrowful and afflicted, but she also knew joys that never entered the heart of man. She is all things to all men that she might understand their failings, though she failed not.