From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony: this is what furthers and what perseveres.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – ‚tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted.

It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.

Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don’t go well.

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

Follow your honest convictions and be strong.

It’s not fun to get out of bed early in the morning. When the alarm goes off, it doesn’t sing you a song: it hits you in the head with a baseball bat. So how do you respond to that? Do you crawl underneath your covers and hide? Or do you get up, get aggressive, and attack the day?

All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

I don’t want to be too critical of what other people do, but when people go back to do the same thing that they did, I’m completely confused. I’m like, ‚Didn’t you make that movie already?‘ I’ve been very fortunate, and I’m well taken care of, so the least I can do is try to go forward.

Forty is when you actually begin even deserving to be on stage telling people what you think.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

Have the humility to learn from those around you.

If you’re not producing as much as you consume, or perhaps a little more, then clearly we cannot use the big organization of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us, and it can’t be of very much use to yourself.

All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.

When one begins to live by habit and by quotation, one has begun to stop living.

When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people.

You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?

It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

To do your best is no longer good enough. We now have to do the seemingly impossible.

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

Mine is better than ours.

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

Our faith is faith in someone else’s faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.

Vanity can create a very cruel space for you if you don’t know how to manage it.

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live as if there isn’t and to die to find out that there is.

Man is unable to see himself entirely unrelated to mankind, neither is he able to see mankind unrelated to life, nor life unrelated to the universe.

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

People until I was 60 would always say they thought I looked younger, which I think, without flattering myself, I did, but I think I certainly have, as George Orwell says people do after a certain age, the face they deserve.

Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.

Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.

Many people genuinely do not want to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings.

The art is long, life is short.

I need to keep working on myself for a while.

The flesh, or human nature, is generally lazy and self-centered.

When you’re drowning, you don’t say ‚I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,‘ you just scream.

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.

I worked out early on to give up things I couldn’t do well at all.

The relationship to one’s fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one’s striving.

It is always your next move.

Change is always tough. Even for those who see themselves as agents of change, the process of starting a new thing can cause times of disorientation, uncertainty and insecurity.

There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.

Those whom the gods love grow young.