Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.

Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.

Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.

Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.

I always try to be smart. I try to treat all the money I’m making like it’s the last time I’m going to make it.

Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.

The most important 6 inches on the battlefield is between your ears.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

I long for the time when all human history is taught as one history, because it really is.

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.

Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.

Fiction is not necessarily about what you know, it’s about how you feel. That is the truth about fiction, and the other truth is that all science is a tool, and we use our tools not to actualise what we know, but to implement how we feel.

Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.

Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

It’s important for me to let my fans know I really don’t care. I’m confident.

I hate violence, yes I do. It’s kind of a dilemma, huh?.

Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.

Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.

Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.

I’ve got a feeling that music might not be the most interesting place to be in the world of things.

Being ‚contented‘ ought to mean in English, as it does in French, being pleased. Being content with an attic ought not to mean being unable to move from it and resigned to living in it; it ought to mean appreciating all there is in such a position.

What we feel and think and are is to a great extent determined by the state of our ductless glands and viscera.

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.

I tried being reasonable, I didn’t like it.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

I was born during the war and grew up in a time of rationing. We didn’t have anything. It’s influenced the way I look at the world.

Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.

Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

Fear is real, but so is love.

Whether happiness may come or not, one should try and prepare one’s self to do without it.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone – a memory.

The worst men often give the best advice.

They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.

I’ve been to those places where it’s ‚poor, pitiful me.‘

There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.

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

I’m rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it’s no longer his… I just see what people make of it.

It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow’s viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.

What women need to understand is that men don’t communicate. It’s not intentional or on purpose. We’re just not as emotional. You ladies feel like you have to express yourselves.

You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‚Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.‘ See the positive in negative events.

I think in defeat you grope for things that are happy, and it’s hard.

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

Then, when I’m in these relationships with people who are also creative, or creative in their own way, what happens is the attraction is initially there and it’s all unicorns and rainbows. And then they hate me.

Everybody is idealistic when you’re a kid.

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But… it is better to be good than to be ugly.

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

We humans are self-absorbed by nature, and spend most of our time focusing inwardly on our emotions, on our wounds, on our fantasies.

Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart.

I’ve always been fascinated with the stealing of innocence. It’s the most heinous crime, and certainly a capital crime if there ever was one.

Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy.

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.

I will never retire unless I have to.