Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.

In South Korea, they believe that when you turn 60, you’ve become a baby again and the rest of your life should be totally about joy and happiness, and people should leave you alone, and I just think that that’s the height of intelligence.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

The real truths of life are never entirely new to you or to anybody because there is a level deep down within you where you already know all the things, all those spiritual truths that you read or hear, and then recognize them. I say ‚recognize‘ because you’re not… it’s not new.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

Age doesn’t bother me. So many of my heroes were older guys. It’s the lack of years left that weighs far heavier on me than the age that I am.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

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

It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.

My lectures, based on Islamic teachings, were on various subjects. Some of the titles were, ‚The Intoxication of Life,‘ ‚The Purpose of Life,‘ ‚The Real Cause of Man’s Distress,‘ ‚The Journey to the Goal in Life,‘ and, one of my favorites, ‚The Heart of Man.‘ They contained important insights that spoke to something deep inside me.

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis.

A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.

God is the name people give to the reason we are here. But I think that reason is the laws of physics rather than someone with whom one can have a personal relationship. An impersonal God.

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.

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

There is only a finger’s difference between a wise man and a fool.

We are wiser than we know.

One who does not know when to die, does not know how to live.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.

Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.

It is easy to dismiss the world as ‚irrelevant,‘ or consumed by ‚paranoid anti-Americanism,‘ but perhaps not wise.

Grace is not part of consciousness; it is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge nor reason.

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.

He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.

Faith… must be enforced by reason… when faith becomes blind it dies.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

The worst men often give the best advice.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

I’ll die a crazy old man!

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.

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

Sometimes the majority just means all the fools are on the same side.

He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.