The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

We do not know what is really good or bad fortune.

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.

All generalizations are false, including this one.

For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.

One thing I’ve always loved about the culture at Microsoft is there is nobody who is tougher on us, in terms of what we need to learn and do better, than the people in the company itself. You can walk down these halls, and they’ll tell you, ‚We need to do usability better, push this or that frontier.‘

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know – and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.

It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down. Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.

When you are spiritually connected, you are not looking for occasions to be offended, and you are not judging and labeling others. You are in a state of grace in which you know you are connected to God and thus free from the effects of anyone or anything external to yourself.

We should take care not to make the intellect our goal; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one’s own character to himself.

One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

It’s only I have seen enough of it and the funny thing is now, I know that I’m skinny, because I know there are even smaller clothes in the store. I think I’m big, when I was big, I never thought about it.

There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.

One cannot violate the promptings of one’s nature without having that nature recoil upon itself.

No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.

I’m a strict, strict agnostic. It’s very different from a casual, ‚I don’t know.‘ It’s that you cannot present as knowledge something that is not knowledge. You can present it as faith, you can present it as belief, but you can’t present it as fact.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

There is no education like adversity.

Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

The philosophical idea that there are no more distances, that we are all just one world, that we are all brothers, is such a drag! I like differences.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

Many people identify their sense of self with the problems they have, or think they have.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

The one thing about the business of entertainment is that you have to learn patience.

I love playing ego and insecurity combined.

Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man’s self.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

When your higher self is present, it always promotes peace.

I’ve never been reckless – it’s always calculated. I’m mischievous, but I’m calculated.

I’m for women choosing whatever they want to do but they have to really know what they are doing.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

If every choice you make comes from an honest place, you’re solid, and nothing anybody can say about you can rock you or change your opinion.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.

You always have to remember that if you say something negative, it’s going to come back to haunt you.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

I don’t think there is any philosophy that suggests having polio is a good thing.

One mustn’t close one’s eyes to difficulty and to shortcomings; the more one recognizes them, the less they upset one.

His was a great sin who first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few hours.

To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

The people who truly know me know what I’m like. There have been people who try to say things that aren’t fair, and I check them. And then they don’t like me because I checked them.

Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.

Some minds remain open long enough for the truth not only to enter but to pass on through by way of a ready exit without pausing anywhere along the route.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

It was a favorite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend.

The more you know the less you need to say.