People talk to people who perceive nothing, who have open eyes and see nothing; they shall talk to them and receive no answer; they shall adore those who have ears and hear nothing; they shall burn lamps for those who do not see.

I try to look on all the great things God’s done, and not focus on the negative. It’s a perspective.

The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.

If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.

Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.

Mortality is very different when you’re 20 to when you’re 50.

There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.

I became a people-watcher when I lost all my friends when I was 12.

It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.

When I tell a child something the first time, I’m nice. The 15th time, I start to get aggravated.

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.

To me, comedy is just twisting reality. It’s commenting or observing or twisting life.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

When you read, I’m sure you don’t realize that your eyes are going backwards and forwards and to this place and that place. Mine don’t do that.

People think you have to go through something to write about it, and you absolutely do not. You can write about, like, a shoe. It’s a story.

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

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

There is nothing that living things do that cannot be understood from the point of view that they are made of atoms acting according to the laws of physics.

Don’t ever call a guy first. The thing they want the most is whatever they can’t have. It sounds really juvenile, but it works.

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

Journalism largely consists of saying ‚Lord Jones is Dead‘ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.

The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don’t mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.

We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.

Most damage that others do us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.

The frontier between hell and heaven is only the difference between two ways of looking at things.

Life is so short. I would rather sing one song than interpret the thousand.

What convinces is conviction. Believe in the argument you’re advancing. If you don’t you’re as good as dead. The other person will sense that something isn’t there, and no chain of reasoning, no matter how logical or elegant or brilliant, will win your case for you.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room. There is no such thing as observation of the inner world, as there is of the outer world.

A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.

To understand a name you must be acquainted with the particular of which it is a name.

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.

I have learned from personal experience that putting trust in God means there will be some unanswered questions. That was a hard lesson for me because I naturally want to understand everything… to know what’s going on so I can feel like I’m in control.

There are some people, you know, they think the way to be a big man is to shout and stomp and raise hell-and then nothing ever really happens. I’m not like that I never shoot blanks.

I can express myself.

Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.

The ‚I think‘ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‚I breathe‘ which actually does accompany them.

It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today.

If you understand the universe, you control it, in a way.

When I was researching my book ‚The 33 Strategies of War‘, I studied Napoleon extensively and I found myself wanting to ask Napoleon questions about things he did, and if was I interpreting his actions correctly.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.

I’m entirely interested in people, and also other creatures and beings, but especially in people, and I tend to read them by emotional field more than anything. So I have a special interest in what they’re thinking and who they are and who’s hiding behind those eyes and how did he get there, and what’s the story, really?

I guess every single word I’ve ever said is going to be dissected now.

The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.

To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.

Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.

Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.