Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

Then not only an old man, but also a drunkard, becomes a second time a child.

I grow daily to honour facts more and more, and theory less and less. A fact, it seems to me, is a great thing; a sentence printed, if not by God, then at least by the Devil.

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.

When in doubt tell the truth.

At one point he decided enough was enough.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

I learned a great many years ago that in a fight between husband and wife, a third party should never get between the woman’s skillet and the man’s ax-helve.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Imagination decides everything.

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country’s scared.

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions – Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now – always.

My grandfather was smart and had a whole lot of pride. He didn’t speak a terrible amount, but you could tell there was a ton on his mind – like a quiet acceptance of how life had turned out.

Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

Golf is a good walk spoiled.

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.

But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

When you’re 40, you can’t ride the fence anymore. You gotta make definite decisions about your life.

I said on the equality side of it, that it is essential to a woman’s equality with man that she be the decision-maker, that her choice be controlling.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

I think I’ve got wiser.

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.

Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.

My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative. I have never been a right-winger. It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems.

Take care to sell your horse before he dies. The art of life is passing losses on.

No man was ever wise by chance.

Much learning does not teach understanding.

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to plan to sell a company.

If you call yourself a leader, then you have to be decisive. If you’re decisive, then you have the chance to be a leader. These are two sides to the same coin.