Being young is a great advantage, since we see the world from a new perspective and we are not afraid to make radical changes.

Life is not living in the suburbs with a white picket fence. That’s not life. Somehow our American culture has made it out that that’s what life needs to be – and that if it’s not that, it’s all screwed up. It’s not.

We identify in our experience a differentiation between what we do and what happens to us.

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

I’m not somebody that thinks about destiny and fate, but I don’t walk away from it when something unfolds.

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

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

There is something curiously boring about somebody else’s happiness.

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture.

Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.

When I was 11, the whole world was closed to me. I just felt I was on the outside of the world.

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

From my standpoint, being an artist, I want to see what the new construction is between artist and audience.

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.

To be honest, I think kids have got a lot more going on than adults. They’ve got their heads screwed on a lot better.

Reality simply consists of different points of view.

NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It’s sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.

Genius goes around the world in its youth incessantly apologizing for having large feet. What wonder that later in life it should be inclined to raise those feet too swiftly to fools and bores.

When I write, it’s like choosing which shoes I’m going to put on. More often than not, my lyrics are personal – but I sometimes have to put myself in other people’s shoes.

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

It’s so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one.

I always have an optimistic view, no matter what it is.

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.

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

I’m more of a realist when it comes to life, and I’d much rather my mother be in a spiritual place in Heaven than in a bed, sick, fighting for her life.

A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can scarce ever be spent.

Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why.

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

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

Once you get into this great stream of history, you can’t get out.

You can be young without money but you can’t be old without it.

It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.

I don’t concern myself with award. I’d been to the party enough times to know it really didn’t matter.

Look at situations from all angles, and you will become more open.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.

Life is a series of commas, not periods.

A lot of people don’t like the road, but it’s as natural to me as breathing.

I had a much better view with the halo than I expected.

Being happy is a matter of personal taste.

Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.

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.

We will explore the mysteries of science and harness the power of technology and innovation. We will realise the opportunities of the digital world. Our youth will learn more from – and with – each other.

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.

The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it.

When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.

I actually don’t want a throne at all, because I don’t view myself as a queen; I view myself as one of my fans.

If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life.

We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.

Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.

The child inside of you knows how to take things as they come, how to deal most effectively and happily with everything and everyone it encounters on this planet. If you can recapture that childlike essence of your being, you can stay ‚forever young at heart.‘