Experience which was once claimed by the aged is now claimed exclusively by the young.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won.

Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.

Jesters do often prove prophets.

I think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest moment of his life has weakened.

Life would pall if it were all sugar; salt is bitter if taken by itself; but when tasted as part of the dish, it savours the meat. Difficulties are the salt of life.

Things ain’t what they used to be and never were.

The more you know the less you need to say.

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

In my youth, I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

When you have kids, you see life through different eyes. You feel love more deeply and are maybe a little more compassionate. It’s inevitable that that would make its way into your songwriting.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

‚Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

My experience of malaria was just taking anti-malarials, which give you strange dreams, because I don’t want to get malaria.

The statesman’s duty is to bridge the gap between his nation’s experience and his vision.

The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line.

Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.

I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.

I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.

Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.

It’s a great, great experience to finally get the reception that you know you rightfully deserve.

To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.

I am not young but I feel young. The day I feel old, I will go to bed and stay there. J’aime la vie! I feel that to live is a wonderful thing.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

When you play sports like tennis, you’re alone, and that’s a good school for life, but it’s also a good school for life to bring your best and make those around you better, too – helping others in difficult moments.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

Some people take defeat and losses a certain way. You see how some fighters take losses.

He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

It’s useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.

Before the effect one believes in different causes than one does after the effect.

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

It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects.

I’m so old, I don’t buy green bananas any more.

Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

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

I believe everyone should have a broad picture of how the universe operates and our place in it. It is a basic human desire. And it also puts our worries in perspective.

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

I write for myself things that I’ve gone through.

The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.

An economically peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka is the dream of youth of the nation. My message for the youth is to collectively work for an inclusively developed Sri Lanka.

My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring still.

Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?

There are definitely people who disagree with certain creative decisions you make. Pleasing everyone is pretty hard.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.

Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

I never think about myself as an artist working in this time. I think about it in macro.

God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.