All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.

The book is not really the container for the book. The book itself is the narrative. It’s the thing that people create.

I don’t think of myself as an artist. I’m just a guy who can write.

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.

The dreams and passions stored within hearts are powerful keys which can unlock a wealth of potential.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

All good art is an indiscretion.

My songs are like my children – I expect them to support me when I’m old.

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.

If anyone offers conjectures about the truth of things from the mere possibility of hypotheses, I do not see by what stipulation anything certain can be determined in any science, since one or another set of hypotheses may always be devised which will appear to supply new difficulties.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

Hell is other people.

He who gives away shall have real gain. He who subdues himself shall be free; he shall cease to be a slave of passions. The righteous man casts off evil, and by rooting out lust, bitterness, and illusion do we reach Nirvana.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

The idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

I wish I could play bass like Larry Graham or Bootsy Collins. My God, I’d give up just about everything else for that.

I’ve always been amazed by Da Vinci, because he worked out science on his own. He would work by drawing things and writing down his ideas. Of course, he designed all sorts of flying machines way before you could actually build something like that.

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever – this is a somewhat new kind of religion.

Bravery never goes out of fashion.

I love making music. That’s what I love to do. So I don’t feel like there’s any need to take a break unless I want to.

My career as Nipsey Hussle is based on my life as Ermias Asghedom.

As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you’re going to be a second-rate artist.

As soon as you have a language that has a past tense and a future tense you’re going to say, ‚Where did we come from, what happens next?‘ The ability to remember the past helps us plan the future.

The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.

I think the materialist conception of history is valid.

Who, being loved, is poor?

There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

Art raises its head where creeds relax.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

Honor thy error as a hidden intention.

The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.

I take inspiration from everyone and everything. I’m inspired by current champions, former champions, true competitors, people dedicated to their dream, hard workers, dreamers, believers, achievers.

Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.

To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist.

A song has to take on character, shape, body and influence people to an extent that they use it for their own devices. It must affect them not just as a song, but as a lifestyle.

Every picture has its own demands, and every picture stimulates something within you to tell it a certain way. I don’t know what that is; I don’t think too much about that.

To depend upon a profession is a less odious form of slavery than to depend upon a father.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition.

I seldom think of politics more than eighteen hours a day.

That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn’t entirely conquer – he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.

One man with courage is a majority.

Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don’t know.

Editing is now the easiest thing on earth to do, and all the things that evolved out of word processing – ‚Oh, let’s put that sentence there, let’s get rid of this‘ – have become commonplace in films and music too.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea.

If men can develop weapons that are so terrifying as to make the thought of global war include almost a sentence for suicide, you would think that man’s intelligence and his comprehension… would include also his ability to find a peaceful solution.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.

One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what’s really happening to me, even if it’s a tough pill to swallow for people around me… I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.

I read Plato’s ‚Republic.‘ I read it through about five times until I could actually understand it.

We do not know what is really good or bad fortune.

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

Man is a universe within himself.