Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.

There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.

It’s just human nature to try and figure things out. So, when we’re in the midst of a situation, we usually try to reason our way through it.

Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.

Some men see things as they are, and say why. I dream of things that never were, and say why not.

Everybody’s got that split between the beautiful and fragile, the hard and the dark.

Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them.

Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

He who looks the higher is the more highly distinguished, and turning over the great book of nature (which is the proper object of philosophy) is the way to elevate one’s gaze.

There are folks who now know black families – like the Johnsons on ‚Black-ish‘ or the folks on ‚Modern Family.‘ They become part of who you are. You share their pains. You understand their fears. They make you laugh, and they change how you see the world.

Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

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

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.

Money doesn’t make you happy. I now have $50 million but I was just as happy when I had $48 million.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

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.

Those who have knowledge, don’t predict. Those who predict, don’t have knowledge.

You always admire what you really don’t understand.

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

Plato is my friend; Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.

He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.

The eye sees what it brings the power to see.

Buddhism has in it no idea of there being a moral law laid down by somekind of cosmic lawgiver.

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

You’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.

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.

The spirit of an age may be best expressed in the abstract ideal arts, for the spirit itself is abstract and ideal.

It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard.

I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking theres some kind of change.

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

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I’m a human being, too. And I’m on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.

Being happy is a matter of personal taste.

Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.

Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform.

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 it’s a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone, somewhere is making a penny.

Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed a bridge: on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it.

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions.

I’m 5’11, so when I wear heels, it’s definitely a really good view that I have. I’m, like, 6’2 when I wear heels, so I tend to wear cowboy boots a lot.

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man’s being unable to sit still in a room.