The proper study of Mankind is Man.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us.

Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.

Really, who you are is defined by the people who you know – not even the people that you know, but the people you spend time with and the people that you love and the people that you work with. I guess we show your friends in your profile, but that’s kind of different from the information you put in your profile.

Become aware of your own insufficiency.

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.

Vanity is great motivation, to be fair.

Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.

The man who occupies the first place seldom plays the principal part.

In the United States, one of the main topics of academic political science is the study of attitudes and policy and their correlation. The study of attitudes is reasonably easy in the United States: heavily-polled society, pretty serious and accurate polls, and policy you can see, and you can compare them.

There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.

Something must be done to save humanity! A better world is possible!

Control and surrender have to be kept in balance. That’s what surfers do – take control of the situation, then be carried, then take control. In the last few thousand years, we’ve become incredibly adept technically. We’ve treasured the controlling part of ourselves and neglected the surrendering part.

If something can corrupt you, you’re corrupted already.

Man is the only animal that blushes – or needs to.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Have you ever thought how humiliating and distressing it was to be placed upon a sphere? For friendship it is a boon never to be able to be further apart than the antipodes. But suppose that you are leaving together to go on and on; it is impossible. To go beyond a certain point is to return to where you began.

Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.

Know that any and all thoughts that you have regarding your own skills, interests, and inclinations are valid. To reinforce the validity of your thoughts, keep them private. Tell yourself that they’re between you and God.

I’ve always felt quite singular, even as a child. That I must stay on track to keep my purpose.

If there is no God, everything is permitted.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

I think who you are in school really sticks with you.

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.

The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man.

Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

Death to me means nothing as long as I can die fast.

I’d like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don’t have misconceptions – they understand. I believe that.

Pride is an independent, me-oriented spirit. It makes people arrogant, rude and hard to get along with. When our heart is prideful, we don’t give God the credit and we mistreat people, looking down on them and thinking we deserve what we have.

Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.

It is only in our decisions that we are important.

We’re all sinners. Everybody you meet all over the world is a sinner.

Anybody can be specific and obvious. That’s always been the easy way. It’s not that it’s so difficult to be unspecific and less obvious; it’s just that there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, to be specific and obvious about.

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

Life is the childhood of our immortality.

What the devil is the point of surviving, going on living, when it’s a drag? But you see, that’s what people do.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

When you realize who you live for, and who’s important to please, a lot of people will actually start living. I am never going to get caught up in that. I’m gonna look back on my life and say that I enjoyed it – and I lived it for me.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

I don’t go around thinking I’m Ray Bradbury all the time.

The more people I reach, the more people there are that have opinions about me. Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

There is nothing permanent except change.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier.