A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer’s hand.

You are the universe, you aren’t in the universe.

It’s not the destination that matters. It’s the change of scene.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

I’ve made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I’m convinced of the opposite.

A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose.

Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

However my parents – both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

I might talk about killing people, but that doesn’t mean I do it.

Always do everything you ask of those you command.

But does that mean that war and violence are inevitable? I would argue not because we have also evolved this amazingly sophisticated intellect, and we are capable of controlling our innate behavior a lot of the time.

I am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something.

War does not determine who is right – only who is left.

This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

If you get your ego in your way, you will only look to other people and circumstances to blame.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give.

Things have never been more like the way they are today in history.

Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.

We should not look at terrorism from the nameplates – which group they belong to, what is their geographical location, who are the victims. These individual groups or names will keep changing.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.

The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.

At first when I heard about climate change, I was a climate denier. I didn’t think it was happening. Because if there really was an existential crisis like that, that would threaten our civilisation, we wouldn’t be focusing on anything else. That would be our first priority. So I didn’t understand how that added up.

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about dying, but I like to think that I’ve – if it did occur – that I would die peacefully and not make too much of a fuss about it.

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face nothing new under the sun.

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

In Kosovo, the U.S. has chosen a course of action that escalates atrocities and violence. It is also a course of action that strikes a blow against the regime of international order, but which offers the weak at least some protection from predatory states.

It’s the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards.

When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.

Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.

Remember happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.

I’ve watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it’s because they tend to believe all the hype that’s out there. I don’t think there’s that much hype about me.

I really don’t pay attention to the outside world when I’m incarcerated, because being in prison is like being in a different world. So I don’t pay attention to what’s going on outside of jail, because it’s all beyond my control.

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light.

People talk to people who perceive nothing, who have open eyes and see nothing; they shall talk to them and receive no answer; they shall adore those who have ears and hear nothing; they shall burn lamps for those who do not see.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.

Go up in an airplane. Go high enough, and it’s like we don’t even exist.

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

The strongest and most effective force in guaranteeing the long-term maintenance of power is not violence in all the forms deployed by the dominant to control the dominated, but consent in all the forms in which the dominated acquiesce in their own domination.

When I was young, poverty was so common that we didn’t know it had a name.

There was a while when I was feeling like, ‚Damn, if I’d just been born black, I would not have to go through all this‘.

If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.

You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.

I don’t think it’s possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.

What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

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.