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.

I wasn’t going to shy away from getting married when I did and having a baby young and starting a family, even with the job that I chose.

The CIA is made up of boys whose families sent them to Princeton but wouldn’t let them into the family brokerage business.

The great thing about having a bunch of kids is they just remind you that you’re the person who takes them to go poop!

I haven’t written my own epitaph, and I’m not sure I should. Whatever it is, I hope it will be simple, and that it will point people not to me, but to the One I served.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

For me, the opposite of scarcity is not abundance. It’s enough. I’m enough. My kids are enough.

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

The problem with me, as far as getting married and having a family, is that my comedy is so important to me. So I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good a dad as my dad.

Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed.

If I had only one sermon to preach it would be a sermon against pride.

Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.

I felt unhappy and trapped. If I left baseball, where could I go, what could I do to earn enough money to help my mother and to marry Rachel? The solution to my problem was only days away in the hands of a tough, shrewd, courageous man called Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

As long as I live, I will never forget that day 21 years ago when I raised my hand and took the oath of citizenship. Do you know how proud I was? I was so proud that I walked around with an American flag around my shoulders all day long.

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.

Philosophy begins in wonder.

All things considered, there’s nobody better for children than parents.

Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

I have a family, loving aunts, and a good home. No, on the surface I seem to have everything except my one true friend. All I think about when I’m with friends is having a good time. I can’t bring myself to talk about anything but ordinary everyday things. We don’t seem to be able to get any closer, and that’s the problem.

I wrote an article on a new Porsche for ‚Automobile Magazine.‘ I knew the editor, and she asked me to write this article. So I’m more proud of that than anything.

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

I’m married. My wife, Stella – a beautiful woman. She’s brought a lot of peace to my life, a lot of wisdom.

Nobody can ever make enough money for as many poor relatives as I’ve got. Somebody’s got a sick kid, or somebody needs an operation, somebody ain’t got this, somebody ain’t got that. Or to give the kids all a car when they graduate.

I would as soon leave my son a curse as the almighty dollar.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

There was the time I bought three cars in the span of three or four weeks. It was crazy; it wasn’t greedy. It was mine, my girl’s, my mom’s. I got Benzes for my ladies. But I felt crazy. You have to understand I come from a world where we’re very modest. But that’s not greedy. That’s nice, right?

My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.

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.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

I have 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they keep me young.

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

Sometimes I catch myself stooping, and whenever I am like that, I am sure something is not quite right.

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

I had a really good childhood up until I was nine, then a classic case of divorce really affected me.

And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

I always thought money was something just to make me happy. But I’ve learned that I feel better being able to help my folks, ‚cause we never had nothing. So just to see them excited about my career is more of a blessing than me actually having it for myself.

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they’re eating sandwiches.

By rendering the labor of one, the property of the other, they cherish pride, luxury, and vanity on one side; on the other, vice and servility, or hatred and revolt.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

America is the student who defies the odds to become the first in a family to go to college – the citizen who defies the cynics and goes out there and votes – the young person who comes out of the shadows to demand the right to dream. That’s what America is about.

Humanity I love you because when you’re hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.

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

I like being with my family. That’s my party.

A grandmother pretends she doesn’t know who you are on Halloween.

I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.

Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them.

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.

My parents taught me service – not by saying, but by doing. That was my culture, the culture of my family.

I want to work; then, as my kids get older, I want to have adventures. I want to visit all their countries: learn and live inside all their cultures.

Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.

I can’t stress to you enough how much I can relate to teens being cyberbullied. Something that helps me is looking at old videos of me and my friends from middle school, or videos of my family. I love watching funny videos of my favorite people – it really cheers me up.

Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.