All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.

Life must be lived as play.

A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.

For time is the longest distance between two places.

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.

I think, often, people who run away are people who got into things most enthusiastically, and then they want more. They just demand more of life than what is happening in the moment. Sometimes this is a great mistake, as it’s always a good deal different than you expect it.

The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.

A man is the whole encyclopedia of facts.

It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience.

I can make something magical and wonderful out of nothing.

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

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.

Life is too short not to celebrate nice moments!

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

The spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

Everybody will make mistakes, and for some that mistake will rise to the level of being a crime.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

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

So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.

A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us.

Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.

Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.

People want to feel hopeful.

Who would set a limit to the mind of man? Who would dare assert that we know all there is to be known?

Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.

I’m half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times. It’s best not to ask questions and just enjoy.

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

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

We’re all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

You have to dream before your dreams can come true.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

My mother used to tell me man gives the award, God gives the reward. I don’t need another plaque.

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

It’s pretty intense writing about my own life, my own struggles.

We have one planet in our solar system that’s habitable, and that’s the Earth, and space travel can transform things back here for the better. First of all, by just having people go to space and look back on this fragile planet we live on. People have come back transformed and have done fantastic things.

Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.

Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

On Sundays when I speak, I hopefully give somebody something that they can use the next day at work or at home.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

Have you ever thought how humiliating and distressing it was to be placed upon a sphere? For friendship it is a boon never to be able to be further apart than the antipodes. But suppose that you are leaving together to go on and on; it is impossible. To go beyond a certain point is to return to where you began.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

But now, being a parent, I go home and see my son and I forget about any mistake I ever made or the reason I’m upset. I get home and my son is smiling or he comes running to me. It has just made me grow as an individual and grow as a man.

Nothing endures but change.

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

You can never really live anyone else’s life, not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you’ve become yourself.