When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.

I knew that I was ‚interesting‘ at 18 because I was aware that I could get away with doing things on stage.

If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.

If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?

Knowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom.

To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all.

I’ve got a feeling that music might not be the most interesting place to be in the world of things.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

I’m addicted to placebos.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

My father had died, and very swiftly, too, of cancer of the esophagus. He was 79. I am 61. In whatever kind of a ‚race‘ life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

The eye sees what it brings the power to see.

Usually, people have a tendency to be caught in the worries concerning the future or in the regret concerning the past. There is some kind of energy that is pushing them to run, and they are not able to establish themselves in the present moment.

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

There’s no way to remove the observer – us – from our perceptions of the world.

Self-talk, for me, has been the biggest thing in my life. A lot of us have a dialogue that is crap. It’s a crappy dialogue. We live in a world right now that is very external. Everything is very on the surface. Superficial. Everything. And what we’re telling ourselves is what we see on TV.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

When I was younger, I was testing myself and questioning everything, but now it’s less about that and more about these are the years of my life with my family.

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

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

I believe everyone should have a broad picture of how the universe operates and our place in it. It is a basic human desire. And it also puts our worries in perspective.

I’d rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.

If you abandon the present moment, you cannot live the moments of your daily life deeply.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

The ideas associated with the problems of the development of science, as far as I can see by looking around me, are not of the kind that everyone appreciates.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.

I don’t like to read things that people write about me. I’d rather read what kids have to say about me because it’s not their profession to do that.

Well, there are some things that I just can’t get out of my head, and they start to annoy me after a while. Sometimes they’re of my own creation, as well – and they’re just as annoying. It’s not only other people’s ear worms that bug me, it’s my own, as well.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

What comes out when life squeezes you? When someone hurts or offends you? If anger, pain and fear come out of you, it’s because that’s what’s inside.

Errors are not in the art but in the artificers.

I’m only going to stand before God and give an account for my life, not for somebody else’s life. If I have a bad attitude, then I need to say there’s no point in me blaming you for what’s wrong in my life.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn’t always so lucky. Less than a century ago, men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.

Nobody enjoys the ‚little show about nothing‘ humor more than me, but that is never the way I look at it.

The people in my songs are all me.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.

A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.

The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.

Life is the childhood of our immortality.

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.

No one knows Anne’s better side, and that’s why most people can’t stand me. Oh, I can be an amusing clown for an afternoon, but after that, everyone’s had enough of me to last a month.

If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.

Ordinary readers, forgive my paradoxes: one must make them when one reflects; and whatever you may say, I prefer being a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education… Without a gentle contempt for education no man’s education is complete.

People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.

The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

Conscious of not being able to separate myself from my time, I have decided to become part of it.

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.