Words are more powerful than some noises. Noises won’t last long. Lyrics are so important, and people don’t realise that.

Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

In my experience, many people confuse being cowardly with being nice.

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.

Science is nothing but perception.

But we try to pretend, you see, that the external world exists altogether independently of us.

I am not going to be a mouthpiece for language that I detest.

Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.

There is one way to have a short but exciting conversation with me, and that is to move too slow.

Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

Because of its phantom nature, and despite elaborate defense mechanisms, the ego is very vulnerable and insecure, and it sees itself as constantly under threat. This, by the way, is the case even if the ego is outwardly very confident.

No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings; it’s this world or nothing. That’s a very powerful perception.

When I am talking to people who I feel don’t like me or are mean, I get really shy, and I kind of curl up personality wise.

What makes you a SEAL, what makes you a SEAL is being a good tactician on the battle field, understanding how to shoot, move, and communicate, knowing small unit maneuver warfare. That’s what makes a good SEAL, and so that is the course of instruction that I taught, was getting SEAL platoons ready for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you’re yelling you’re the one who’s lost control of the conversation.

Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language.

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

It was really hard for them to intimidate me. They felt I was intimidating. One of the growers had a name for me: I think it was ‚dragon lady‘ or something like it.

There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.

It’s tough to negotiate from a position of weakness.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

A friend of mine tells that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

We misjudge risk if we feel we have some control over it, even if it’s an illusory sense of control.

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

If you’re talking to a man who wouldn’t fight with you under any circumstances whatsoever, then you’re talking to someone for whom you have absolutely no respect.

I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‚Here I am. This is me.‘ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.

I did my utmost to ensure that everyone below me in the chain of command felt comfortable approaching me with concerns, ideas, thoughts, and even disagreements.

If you want to get each individual’s honest opinion, you don’t want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.

Such a chimerical idea as telegraphing vocal sounds would indeed, to most minds, seem scarcely feasible enough to spend time in working over. I believe, however, that it is feasible and that I have got the cue to the solution of the problem.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

I’m the most recognized and loved man that ever lived cuz there weren’t no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people far away in the villages didn’t know about them.

If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.

My friend has a baby. I’m recording all the noises he makes so later I can ask him what he meant.

My age is very insignificant to me. I don’t think about it, but the world does. The world likes young people in general.

What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.

Style is that which indicates how the writer takes himself and what he is saying. It is the mind skating circles around itself as it moves forward.

Debates, I hate.

There may not be one Truth – there may be several truths – but saying that is not to say that reality doesn’t exist.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.

Rock stars are good at making noise.

I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.

He who lives in our mind is near though he may actually be far away; but he who is not in our heart is far though he may really be nearby.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

It is a mania shared by philosophers of all ages to deny what exists and to explain what does not exist.

The American people are entitled to see the president and to hear his views directly, and not to see him only through the press.

I have to be seen to be believed.

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.

Diplomacy is the art of saying ‚Nice doggie‘ until you can find a rock.