Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.

We should all start to live before we get too old.

I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.

Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you’re gonna die, so how do you fill in the space between here and there? It’s yours. Seize your space.

In the United States, one of the main topics of academic political science is the study of attitudes and policy and their correlation. The study of attitudes is reasonably easy in the United States: heavily-polled society, pretty serious and accurate polls, and policy you can see, and you can compare them.

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

Modern science says: ‚The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future.‘ From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom.

An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

Life well spent is long.

Life’s a bit like mountaineering – never look down.

You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one.

A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny.

We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.

Life is an ordeal, albeit an exciting one, but I wouldn’t trade it for the good old days of poverty and obscurity.

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.

It is a common saying, and in everybody’s mouth, that life is but a sojourn.

Danger is sauce for prayers.

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.

The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

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

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.

Time discovers truth.

Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.

Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use.

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

In every parting there is an image of death.

Millions of people die every day. Everyone’s got to go sometime.

I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries.

Ageing’s alright, better than the alternative, which is not being here.

Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole.

I suppose, in a way, this has become part of my soul. It is a symbol of my life. Whatever I have done that really matters, I’ve done wearing it. When the time comes, it will be in this that I journey forth. What greater honor could come to an American, and a soldier?

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.

Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality.

No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.

I didn’t go to school for a full year until I was 12. In the summer I was a wild child in the woods, with no shoes, and in the fall it was back to the city, shoe shops and school.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

You are a child of the sun, you come from the sun, and that is something true with the Earth also… your relationship with the Earth is so deep, and the Earth is in you and this is something not very difficult, much less difficult then philosophy.

Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.

Bears are very nice, as long as you are nice to them.

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

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

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.

If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.

The wisest hustler can suddenly fall for the worst tramp and lose all of his money on her. The hustler is aware of his own weaknesses and openings to con. This awareness is his edge.

If you can feel that Mother Earth is in you, and you are Mother Earth, then you are not any longer afraid to die because the earth is not dying. Like a wave appears and disappears and appears again.