A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.

The foolish man conceives the idea of ‚self.‘ The wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of ‚self;‘ thus, he has a right conception of the world and well concludes that all compounds amassed by sorrow will be dissolved again, but the truth will remain.

Basically, I’m one of the greatest producers ever. And I’m also one of the greatest DJs ever. And I’m also one of the best executives ever.

We do not see people as they are, but as they appear to us. And these appearances are usually misleading.

Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger.

If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.

Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it’s just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip.

A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.

We misjudge risk if we feel we have some control over it, even if it’s an illusory sense of control.

Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.

Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.

As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about what they can.

Vanity is but the surface.

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.

No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings; it’s this world or nothing. That’s a very powerful perception.

The finest works of art are precious, among other reasons, because they make it possible for us to know, if only imperfectly and for a little while, what it actually feels like to think subtly and feel nobly.

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.

All of my brothers and sisters are very talented. They all sang all right.

I’m personally more struck by visual things more than musical.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

I know I’m talented, but I wasn’t put here to sing. I was put here to be a wife and a mom and look after my family. I love what I do, but it’s not where it begins and ends.

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.

Many people find the universe confusing – it’s not.

Everybody has their thing they like or don’t like to see. It’s all in your head. That’s why people take their own pictures, because it’s difficult for someone else to capture what you seek.

As a blind man has no idea of colors, so have we no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things.

Some are reputed sick and some are not. It often happens that the sicker man is the nurse to the sounder.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

When I was in high school, there were these British blues-rock-type bands with really good guitar players that would jam on one song for half an hour. And as much as I was amazed by some of those guitar players, seeing them prompted me to make a note that that’s not something I could do.

I feel like everything we do comes down to how it looks. Even no branding is branding. For example, you had no face or image to put to my music at first. That was branding.

A great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.

Britney Spears was an incredible dancer. That kid was amazing.

Seeing is not always believing.

What people see on court is another side of me; it’s not me.

Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be.

Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.

We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it’s all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can’t change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?

If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty, and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly than aesthetics will see its moral lesson. It will fill the cowardly with terror, and the unclean will see in it their own shame.

No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius.

What we wish, we readily believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also.

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

An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

I have always had a talent for irritating women since I was fourteen.

If I had never ventured beyond being a stand-up comic, then I would be sitting in my house today working on my Leonardo DiCaprio impression.

How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?

I don’t have this feeling that 70 is really old.

Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?

No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.

Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you.

A lot of people think I’m a comedian.

I trust my taste. I trust it completely and I always have done, and I’ve always thought it isn’t that different from everybody else’s.

All knowledge or form conception is evoked through the medium of the eye, either in response to disturbances directly received on the retina or to their fainter secondary effects and reverberations. Other sense organs can only call forth feelings which have no reality of existence and of which no conception can be formed.

The fellow that can only see a week ahead is always the popular fellow, for he is looking with the crowd. But the one that can see years ahead, he has a telescope but he can’t make anybody believe that he has it.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.