He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men.

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

The best book, like the best speech, will do it all – make us laugh, think, cry and cheer – preferably in that order.

Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

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

I know my flaws before other people point them out to me.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

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

I let the American people down.

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.

Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known.

Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.

Where knowledge ends, religion begins.

We’re in the last days, man – I truly, in my heart, believe that. It’s written. I could go on with biblical situations and things my grandma told me. But it’s about being at peace with myself and making good with the people around me.

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.

There is no darkness but ignorance.

I love us so incredibly, insanely deeply; it’s almost unbearable to see what we do to ourselves.

If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water’s edge.

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

A man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

The book you don’t read won’t help.

I don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever. I’m not really book-smart.

In a universe that’s an intelligent system with a divine creative force supporting it, there simply can be no accidents. As tough as it is to acknowledge, you had to go through what you went through in order to get to where you are today, and the evidence is that you did.

The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

For people who are readers, reading is important to them.

I wake up some mornings and sit and have my coffee and look out at my beautiful garden, and I go, ‚Remember how good this is. Because you can lose it.‘

I am not a fan of books.

Most of the time I spend when I get up in the morning is trying to figure out what is going to happen.

As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don’t know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs?

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

I’m constantly thinking.

Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man.

There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge – that is everywhere.

Perhaps I can say that I am a bit astute, that I can adapt to circumstances, but it is also true that I am a bit naive. Yes, but the best summary, the one that comes more from the inside and I feel most true is this: I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‚try to be a little kinder.‘

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

The moment I said I’d finished a book, I knew what would happen. There would be a bidding war, and I would end up with someone who’d got the fattest wallet, who had bought it because I’d written Harry Potter. That would have been why.

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.

If you wished to be loved, love.

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

There are many things that I don’t understand.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.

I used to take my short stories to girls‘ homes and read them to them. Can you imagine the reaction reading a short story to a girl instead of pawing her?

One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.

Knowledge of the past and of the places of the earth is the ornament and food of the mind of man.

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

I think the reason I don’t read is because, when I’m reading, I feel like I’m missing out on something else. You know, What are my friends doing? Where’s my girlfriend?

If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

I don’t think I am evangelical in my work.