The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.

I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment. I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as if I was going to carry on living.

He knows my limitations and where I’m a good wife and a good mom.

If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.

We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are – that is the fact.

I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.

Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.

Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.

A man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

I was brought up to try to see what was wrong and right it. Since I am a writer, writing is how I right it.

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people’s opinions will rush in from all quarters.

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.

Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.

America’s promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. We bear our burdens. That’s one of the reasons why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago when I took office.

Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility.

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

Being the boss anywhere is lonely. Being a female boss in a world of mostly men is especially so.

Cowardice… is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend functioning of the imagination.

Oh, I’ve always been very… Emotional. ‚Hypersensitive‘ is what they call it, I think.

Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.

I used to let other people’s struggles affect my happiness. If they weren’t happy, there was no way I was going to be happy. The opposite was also true: If I wasn’t happy, I didn’t want anyone around me to be happy.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Don’t ever forget two things I’m going to tell you. One, don’t believe everything that’s written about you. Two, don’t pick up too many checks.

If one has the answers to all the questions – that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble.

Base souls have no faith in great individuals.

Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?

It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel.

The healthy man does not torture others – generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.

I worked out early on to give up things I couldn’t do well at all.

We don’t believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.

Well I do think, when there are more women, that the tone of the conversation changes, and also the goals of the conversation change. But it doesn’t mean that the whole world would be a lot better if it were totally run by women. If you think that, you’ve forgotten high school.

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

At some point, you grow out of being attracted to that flame that burns you over and over and over again.

In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.

One might say that our words are a movie screen that reveals what we have been thinking and the attitudes we have.

If you’re embarrassed because you have some notion about how men are supposed to behave, and it doesn’t include weeping, then you have some personal work to do.

We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.

A fanatic is a man who consciously over compensates a secret doubt.

A jug fills drop by drop.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

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.

Be content to seem what you really are.

When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.