Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in, you can’t expect an angel to look out.

The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.

Pride is pleasure arising from a man’s thinking too highly of himself.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

It’s very hard to live with yourself if you don’t stick with your moral code.

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can’t find.

Most of the time I spend when I get up in the morning is trying to figure out what is going to happen.

Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know.

The world can criticize me, but l can always criticize it back.

All generalizations are false, including this one.

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.

Every time I plant a seed, He say kill it before it grow, he say kill it before they grow.

A lie cannot live.

No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life – knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.

Old age is just a record of one’s whole life.

Error is always more busy than truth.

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

When I see myself as an old woman, I just think about being happy. And hopefully, I’ll still be fly.

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight… the truly wise person is colorblind.

The book you don’t read won’t help.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

Of two evils, choose neither.

All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time.

And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don’t think anyone in my family would really feel I’d done them an injustice by saying that. We didn’t see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

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

When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.

By reading, you learn through others‘ experiences, generally, a better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man’s life.

When I was writing ‚Kitchen Confidential,‘ I was in my 40s, I had never paid rent on time, I was 10 years behind on my taxes, I had never owned my own furniture or a car.

Returning to your family and where you came from, and your history… this is what makes you strong. It’s not looking out that’s going to do that – it’s looking in.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don’t live my life in the way someone like you does. I live my life completely serving only my work and my fans.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

I wish I knew why I am so anguished.

I am 55 years old now. It takes three years to write one book. I don’t know how many books I will be able to write before I die. It is like a countdown. So with each book I am praying – please let me live until I am finished.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

There is no such thing as Something for nothing.

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

I don’t think I am evangelical in my work.

The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.

If some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to the study of the Yi, and then I might come to be without great faults.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

We have a choice about how we take what happens to us in our life and whether or not we allow it to turn us. We can become consumed by hate and darkness, or we’re able to regain our humanity somehow, or come to terms with things and learn something about ourselves.

I’m giving all that I have in this life. I’m opening up my notebook, and I’m saying everything in there out loud.

Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain: and it is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel.