There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

It is as necessary for man to live in beauty rather than ugliness as it is necessary for him to have food for an aching belly or rest for a weary body.

The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.

It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.

All human actions are equivalent and all are on principle doomed to failure.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy.

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.

I’m going to be so much better a president for having been at the CIA that you’re not going to believe it.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

It constitutes a superhuman effort to lead any people in times of crisis. Without them, the changes would be impossible.

I was never ignorant, as far as being experienced in classrooms and learning about different subjects and actually soaking it up, so I checked into college for a little bit. I took classes at a community college in West L.A. I took psychology, English, and philosophy.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

What the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope… It is not a reflection of all religious people.

What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.

Religion is the frozen thought of man out of which they build temples.

You’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.

I started out in anthropology, so to me how society works, how people put themselves together and make things work, has always been a big interest.

The most important thing for a director is being able to communicate.

So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?

Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.

I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking theres some kind of change.

All men are equal before fish.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

The way is long if one follows precepts, but short… if one follows patterns.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.

Fear is the mother of morality.

To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

I draw pleasure in governance, in doing new things and bringing people together. That pleasure is all I need from life.

I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.

I argue thee that love is life. And life hath immortality.

Anger is wonderful. It keeps you going. I’m angry about bankers. About the government.

The question really is, are you improving the world? And you can do that in many models. You can do that in government, you can do that in a nonprofit, and you can do it in commercial enterprise.

If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.

I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it to them.

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

A director makes 100 decisions an hour. Students ask me how you know how to make the right decision, and I say to them, ‚If you don’t know how to make the right decision, you’re not a director.‘

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

I’ve been so blessed to play for the greatest coach at a time when our organization has done incredible things. I’ve played with the best teammates. Playing for Mr. Kraft and what his influence on the team has been.

Politics have no relation to morals.

All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike.

Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.

I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.

Government’s first duty and highest obligation is public safety.

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.

Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.