A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

If every choice you make comes from an honest place, you’re solid, and nothing anybody can say about you can rock you or change your opinion.

The more you stay in this kind of job, the more you realize that a public figure, a major public figure, is a lonely man.

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man’s own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.

I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.

I’ve had no problem harnessing anger.

Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

We are all at times unconscious prophets.

Knowledge is true opinion.

Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.

A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.

Change alone is unchanging.

Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems more venerable than the oldest man.

Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Think not that humility is weakness; it shall supply the marrow of strength to thy bones. Stoop and conquer; bow thyself and become invincible.

Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery’s shadow or reflection: the fact that you don’t merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.

Those who have knowledge, don’t predict. Those who predict, don’t have knowledge.

Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why.

Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.

When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.

Having nothing, nothing can he lose.

Women have to be active listeners and interrupters – but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Hollywood is not suited for me, and I am not suited for it.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

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

I don’t have any secrets I need kept any more.

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.

One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one’s death, one dies one’s life.

Let’s not burn the universities yet. After all, the damage they do might be worse.

No such thing as a man willing to be honest – that would be like a blind man willing to see.

Everyone assumes I practise all of my own laws but I don’t. I think anybody who did would be a horrible ugly person to be around.

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

My fate cannot be mastered; it can only be collaborated with and thereby, to some extent, directed. Nor am I the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger.

You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

I wish I had known when I was in the White House what I know now about the Third World.

The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately… you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you.

I don’t think I’m supposed to boss other people around just because I’m a so-called celebrity or star. I hate that when people act that way. No one deserves it. I’ve seen it happen. I don’t call those people out – they know who they are. Some enjoy that reputation.

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

For an author, the nice characters aren’t much fun. What you want are the screwed up characters. You know, the characters that are constantly wondering if what they are doing is the right thing, characters that are not only screwed up but are self-tapping screws. They’re doing it for themselves.

I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

I’ve always felt like there was a lot of hype around me even when there wasn’t. I felt like everyone was talking about me even when no one was talking about me.