Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.

We have lost contact with reality, the simplicity of life.

Old men are dangerous: it doesn’t matter to them what is going to happen to the world.

You’re going to die. You’re going to be dead. It could be 20 years, it could be tomorrow, anytime. So am I. I mean, we’re just going to be gone. The world’s going to go on without us. All right now. You do your job in the face of that, and how seriously you take yourself you decide for yourself.

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

Throughout my years in business, I discovered something. I would always ask why you do things. The answers that I would invariably get are: ‚Oh, that’s just the way things are done around here.‘ Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks very deeply about things in business.

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.

People see things differently and remember things differently. It’s why if somebody robs a liquor store and there are four witnesses they’ll often disagree.

Everybody looks like clones and the only people you notice are my age. I don’t notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70.

I’m personally more struck by visual things more than musical.

Well, I don’t think there’s any need for people to focus on my career.

My father was a negative person. He actually taught me to be negative, if that makes any sense. I remember him saying: ‚You know there’s no point in expecting anything good to happen because it won’t.‘ I grew up in such a negative atmosphere.

This is not a bad life.

In my opinion, there is no aspect of reality beyond the reach of the human mind.

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

There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.

Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.

Any experience that touches you, in any particular way, is good. It can be a horrible experience.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble.

Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.

In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.

Being young is a great advantage, since we see the world from a new perspective and we are not afraid to make radical changes.

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Oh, yes; you Virginians shed barrels of perspiration while standing off at a distance and superintending the work your slaves do for you. It is different with us. Here it is every fellow for himself, or he doesn’t get there.

A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

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.

Genius… means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories – and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories.

Be a force of love as often as you can and turn away negative thoughts whenever you feel them surface.

The idea is to try to give all the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another.

Those who believe that they are exclusively in the right are generally those who achieve something.

The magical, supernatural force that is with us every second is time. We can’t even comprehend it. It’s such an illusion, it’s such a strange thing.

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

Teach us that wealth is not elegance, that profusion is not magnificence, that splendor is not beauty.

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

The time to worrying about flying is when you’re on the ground. When you’re up in the air, it’s too late. No point in worrying about it then.

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.

There are very few people who really appreciate my shows. People come to the show and they pay and they enjoy it, but I don’t really think most people really understand what they’ve seen.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

I believe that a trusting attitude and a patient attitude go hand in hand. You see, when you let go and learn to trust God, it releases joy in your life. And when you trust God, you’re able to be more patient. Patience is not just about waiting for something… it’s about how you wait, or your attitude while waiting.

There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone.

Measure your wealth by what you’d have left if you lost all your money.

When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.

We are anthill men upon an anthill world.

Perception often lags behind reality, and I can say from experience that the vast majority of public officials in Louisiana are much better than our reputation holds us to be.

When I was young, poverty was so common that we didn’t know it had a name.