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

A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.

I’m getting a wrinkle above my eyebrow because I just can’t stop lifting it, and I love that you know.

It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.

Upon the farm of the uncle with whom I lived, we did know of the mortgage as some dreadful damper on youthful hopes of things that could not be bought. I do have a vivid recollection that the major purpose of a farm was to produce a living right on the spot for the family.

My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.

Things have never been more like the way they are today in history.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

I’m half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times. It’s best not to ask questions and just enjoy.

Wisdom is found only in truth.

I don’t write so much now. I’m getting on 33, pot belly and creeping dementia.

When you are younger, you want to do everything, and you go haywire.

Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.

A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.

You can know or not know how a car runs and still enjoy riding in a car.

We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.

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

He that won’t be counseled can’t be helped.

In my entire life, any time I’ve ever lost something, I’ve gotten something even better going around the next corner. It’s like one door closes and another door opens. As long as I can walk through the produce section in every grocery store in this country and eat the grapes that they’re going to throw away, I know I can be fine.

Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.

Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

To correct a natural indifference I was placed half-way between misery and the sun. Misery kept me from believing that all was well under the sun, and the sun taught me that history wasn’t everything.

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.

We cannot wish for that we know not.

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

You can be a rank insider as well as a rank outsider.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

I think I hate cynicism more than anything else. It’s the curse of our age, and I want to avoid it at all costs.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.

No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.

There is no such things as ‚best‘ in the world of individuals.

He that sows thorns should never go barefoot.

I never – you know also one of the things that would save me for a man my age, it was not that easy to lose that much weight and fall down and look like something draped.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

My grandfather was smart and had a whole lot of pride. He didn’t speak a terrible amount, but you could tell there was a ton on his mind – like a quiet acceptance of how life had turned out.

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

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

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

I once did a three-hour interview with Radio Oxford only to be told the microphone hadn’t picked me up.

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

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight… the truly wise person is colorblind.

Frankly, I mean, sometimes the interpretations I’ve seen on some of the songs that I’ve written are a lot more interesting than the input that I put in.

When I was about thirteen, the library was going to get ‚Calculus for the Practical Man.‘ By this time I knew, from reading the encyclopedia, that calculus was an important and interesting subject, and I ought to learn it.

What you see, but can’t see over is as good as infinite.

Life is so, so short. Bible says it’s like a vapor.

See any detour as an opportunity to experience new things.

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.