A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.

Life is the childhood of our immortality.

Whenever I think of the past, it brings back so many memories.

In ‚Changeling,‘ I tried to show something you’d never see nowadays – a kid sitting and looking at the radio. Just sitting in front of the radio and listening. Your mind does the rest.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

Day by day we should weigh what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed.

Sometimes, I want to talk on a song and be angry, because I am angry. Then there’s always a part of me that remembers that this record lives past my being angry, and so do I really want to be angry about that? Is that feeling going to have longevity?

I’ve written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that’s what’s been fun about looking back.

Last year we said, ‚Things can’t go on like this‘, and they didn’t, they got worse.

It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.

Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers anymore; only the life I have lived. The pain now is part of the happiness then.

Who would ever think that so much went on in the soul of a young girl?

It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.

It is a most delightful reflection that if I come to the throne of God in prayer, I may feel a thousand defects, but yet there is hope. I usually feel more dissatisfied with my prayers than with anything else I do.

Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.

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.

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.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

That’s the shock: All cliches are true. The years really do speed by. Life really is as short as they tell you it is. And there really is a God – so do I buy that one? If all the other cliches are true… Hell, don’t pose me that one.

At ev’ry word a reputation dies.

Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.

My experience is listen, see, feel – and then think about what you change.

The concept of loneliness and exile and self-sufficiency continually bucks me up.

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

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

One always dies too soon or too late. And yet, life is there, finished: the line is drawn, and it must all be added up. You are nothing other than your life.

History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right.

In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.

Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.

A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species. The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

There’s a deceptive sin that can keep us from walking in love: pride. It’s deceptive because when you have pride, you’re usually too proud to admit it. I know this because I used to have teachings on pride and they didn’t sell well.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.

A tree’s a tree. How many more do you need to look at?

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

I wear a hat on stage so that people won’t be blinded by the reflection from my head. Also, if I don’t wear a hat, there’s no way that the hat can be at that level by itself on the stage.

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

Sometimes you stumble across a few chords that put you in a reflective place.

Dying is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down.

Yesterday’s just a memory, tomorrow is never what it’s supposed to be.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.

I wish I had known when I was in the White House what I know now about the Third World.

I don’t want to be too critical of what other people do, but when people go back to do the same thing that they did, I’m completely confused. I’m like, ‚Didn’t you make that movie already?‘ I’ve been very fortunate, and I’m well taken care of, so the least I can do is try to go forward.

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.

Looking back on the production of ‚Nevermind,‘ I’m embarrassed by it now. It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.