In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him.

Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.

The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must therefore be treated with great caution.

Half a truth is often a great lie.

Expectations are a form of first-class truth: If people believe it, it’s true.

I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.

The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears.

In the child, consciousness rises out of the depths of unconscious psychic life, at first like separate islands, which gradually unite to form a ‚continent,‘ a continuous landmass of consciousness. Progressive mental development means, in effect, extension of consciousness.

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.

A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.

Some people feel affronted when something they thought to be true doesn’t happen. If that’s the case, then your sense of risk is much higher, and that leads to risk aversion. You need to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty.

In too many communities, too many young men of color are left behind and seen only as objects of fear. Through initiatives like My Brother’s Keeper, I’m personally committed to changing both perception and reality.

Sometimes cameras and television are good to people and sometimes they aren’t. I don’t know if its the way you say it, or how you look.

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Justice and truth are too such subtle points that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

The experience of life consists of the experience which the spirit has of itself in matter and as matter, in mind and as mind, in emotion, as emotion, etc.

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.

Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who ever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?

When you take your attention into the present moment, a certain alertness arises. You become more conscious of what’s around you, but also, strangely, a sense of presence that is both within and without.

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.

This is the truth: as from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again.

No sane man will dance.

The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence.

No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

A true artist is expected to be all that is noble-minded, and this is not altogether a mistake; on the other hand, however, in what a mean way are critics allowed to pounce upon us.

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.

We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts.

One aged man – one man – can’t fill a house.

We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.

Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.

The truth doesn’t hurt unless it ought to.

Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

This man used to go to school with his dog. Then they were separated. His dog graduated!

If you seek truth you will not seek victory by dishonorable means, and if you find truth you will become invincible.

The unnatural, that too is natural.

I’m interested in the dream and subconscious mind, the peculiar dream-like quality of our lives, sometime nightmare quality of our lives.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.

Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.

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

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.

How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me.

In Italy they take cheap cloth and make it look expensive, but I take expensive cloth and make it look cheap. They just don’t understand.

Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.

We are born, so to speak, twice over; born into existence, and born into life; born a human being, and born a man.

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

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.