By indignities men come to dignities.

Man has throughout the ages been seeking something beyond himself, beyond material welfare – something we call truth or God or reality, a timeless state – something that cannot be disturbed by circumstances, by thought or by human corruption.

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

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

What if nothing exists and we’re all in somebody’s dream?

I was so rude when I was a little girl.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

Joanne‘ is a progression for me. It was about going into the studio and forgetting that I was famous.

I can handle pain.

The Bible tells us to be perfect. This is likely a scary thought for many people. It used to scare me. I didn’t think I could ever get there, no matter how hard I tried.

Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

Our work is never over.

Things won’t get better dwelling on the past. Accept what has happened. Then move forward.

The first book I ever really read was Plato’s ‚Republic,‘ and then I had to go over that five times or something.

I find with most of my readers are kind of like me, sort of people who were a little bit naive in life and then learned the hard way that this is what’s going on, the political games and most of my readers write to me telling me that the book helped them open their eyes to what other people are doing to them.

Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.

I never expected any sort of success with ‚Mockingbird’… I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.

If you try to protect yourself from pain, it becomes a stone in your heart. But the more you learn to face things, the more likely that stone can become a pearl.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.

Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.

I hate to be smart.

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

I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give.

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened – as if somebody was trying to demote them.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

When I was old enough to change my name, I changed it to Mr. T so that the first word out of someone’s mouth was ‚Mister,‘ a sign of respect.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

Use, do not abuse… neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

An employer of mine back in the ’80s was kind enough to take me on after a rough patch, and it made a big difference in my life that I knew I was the sort of person who showed up on time. It’s a basic tell of character.

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

Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.

If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

It’s always a struggle growing up in Akron.

I have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career: ‚You never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.‘

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?

When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.

I don’t know how to live good. I only know how to suffer.

Everybody has goals, aspirations or whatever, and everybody has been at a point in their life where nobody believed in them.

Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.

I’m sure like everyone else I’m not always the happiest if I don’t do a good job in quali or the race or whatever, so I think beating myself up sometimes makes me work harder.

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they’ve taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.

I love money because I’ve earned it. I won sixty G’s with my first knockout – and the week before, I was collecting social welfare.

In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.

You don’t have to give way to careless speech or complaining. You don’t have to let your feelings get in the way of what God wants to do in your life.

Good intentions never change anything. They only become a deeper and deeper rut.

As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do?