Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.

The universe is not indifferent to our existence – it depends on it.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.

God wants to bless us where we are.

God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with.

I know now that there is no one thing that is true – it is all true.

There’s always an element of self delusion among people who believe they ought to be President. There’s an underestimation of your opponent and an overestimation of your own abilities. This is compatible with being rich and powerful, the idea that we were blessed by God because we deserve to be blessed.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s futures. And we are all mortal.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice.

What we call Man’s power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.

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

Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.

Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that’s how we’ve got to live.

There is nothing so stable as change.

There is the good and the bad, the great and the low, the just and the unjust. I swear to you that all that will never change.

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

If God treats you well by teaching you a disastrous lesson, you never forget it.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God.

To the dumb question, ‚Why me?‘ the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, ‚Why not?‘

Man is unable to see himself entirely unrelated to mankind, neither is he able to see mankind unrelated to life, nor life unrelated to the universe.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

I thank God I’m in a position where I can pick and choose – there are some roles I don’t play.

A dark cloud is no sign that the sun has lost his light; and dark black convictions are no arguments that God has laid aside His mercy.

A God without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature.

You are doomed to make choices. This is life’s greatest paradox.

What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth.

I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.

I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else – God is in this person’s life. You can – you must – try to seek God in every human life.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the ‚Not Me,‘ that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, ‚Nature.‘

To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.

We moralize among ruins.

He who gives away shall have real gain. He who subdues himself shall be free; he shall cease to be a slave of passions. The righteous man casts off evil, and by rooting out lust, bitterness, and illusion do we reach Nirvana.

Freedom without limits is just a word.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

All truth is simple… is that not doubly a lie?

To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.

Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you.

I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.

My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.

Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.

I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.