A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species. The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning.

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

The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathise with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life’s sores the better.

No man was ever wise by chance.

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.

He that sows thorns should never go barefoot.

Every step of life shows much caution is required.

All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.

I never had to choose a subject – my subject rather chose me.

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.

Heaven is long-enduring, and earth continues long. The reason why heaven and earth are able to endure and continue thus long is because they do not live of, or for, themselves.

As long as the people don’t fear the truth, there is hope. For once they fear it, the one who tells it doesn’t stand a chance. And today, truth is still beautiful… but so frightening.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

I draw from the Absurd three consequences: my revolt, my liberty, my passion.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

I feel a distaste for hunting, first because of a kind of Buddhist respect for the unity and sacredness of all life, and also because the pursuit of a hare or chamois strikes me as a kind of ‚escape of energy,‘ that is, the expenditure of our effort in an illusory end, one devoid of profit.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.

Error is always more busy than truth.

Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.

It’s possible – you can never know – that the universe exists only for me. If so, it’s sure going well for me, I must admit.

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

Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.

Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price.

I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much – if at all.

How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.

The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever will be born must destroy a world.

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

I was at a New Year’s Eve party, and someone asked me how was my year, and I said, ‚I honestly think 2011 was the best year of my entire life,‘ and I actually meant it.

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.

I have learned to know God. I have recast my social belief… All my admirers are married; most of my friends are dead; and I stand with all the world before me, where to choose a path to make in it.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?

All diseases run into one, old age.

There’s one advantage in having been around as long as I have. Everybody in the Senate knows me, and – I’m going to say something presumptuous, to repeat myself – I think most respect me.

Clearly older women and especially older women who have led an active life or elder women who successfully maneuver through their own family life have so much to teach us about sharing, patience, and wisdom.

Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.

There’s a deceptive sin that can keep us from walking in love: pride. It’s deceptive because when you have pride, you’re usually too proud to admit it. I know this because I used to have teachings on pride and they didn’t sell well.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

My old drama coach used to say, ‚Don’t just do something, stand there.‘ Gary Cooper wasn’t afraid to do nothing.

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.

The good times of today, are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.

He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

I don’t want to be an action star, an action star’s life is so short. I want my life to get longer, I want my career to get longer.

Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.

There’s place and means for every man alive.

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.