Getting old is a fascination thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.

No one can give you better advice than yourself.

I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.

To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.

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

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

All in all, for someone who was immersed in, fascinated by, and dedicated to flight, I was disappointed by the wrinkle in history that had brought me along one generation late. I had missed all the great times and adventures in flight.

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

I really have had to swallow my own prejudice at times.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

Don’t throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.

In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

He who does not trust enough, Will not be trusted.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

Humility is to make a right estimate of one’s self.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

When it comes to our everyday habits, it’s important to ask: ‚Am I putting God first?‘

It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and to prefer things in measure to things in excess.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don’t speak well of yourself.

Nevertheless, whether in occurrences lasting days, hours or mere minutes at a time, I have experienced happiness often, and have had brief encounters with it in my later years, even in old age.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

My pride fell with my fortunes.

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

Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.

I am proud of having done what I’ve done. Very proud.

It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.

Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better know them.

We are wiser than we know.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

You learn from a conglomeration of the incredible past – whatever experience gotten in any way whatsoever.

We call first truths those we discover after all the others.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

I guess maybe when you get past 70, other people start asking you how you feel.

Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

What I see, what I went through, what a friend of mine may have went through, whatever – I rap about it.

My biggest error? Something that is to happen yet.

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

We all self-conscious. I’m just the first to admit it.

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

Dressing up is a bore. At a certain age, you decorate yourself to attract the opposite sex, and at a certain age, I did that. But I’m past that age.