He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; the Named is the mother of all things.

America is a country of inventors, and the greatest of inventors are the newspaper men.

I love to watch times change!

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

The Green Revolution focused on the big three – maize, rice and wheat – and the Green Revolution did not adapt the big three to African conditions, other than South Africa, as much as they should have.

Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

The wisest have the most authority.

Nothing recedes like progress.

The world has entered an era of the most profound and challenging change in human history.

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

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

All that I know about my life, it seems, I have learned in books.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

Take care to sell your horse before he dies. The art of life is passing losses on.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

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

Technology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings.

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

Listen to many, speak to a few.

Flying cars are not a very efficient way to move things from one point to another.

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

The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can’t find.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

Changes are not unusual – I mean, most movies, when they release them, they make changes. But somehow, when I make the slightest change, everybody thinks it’s the end of the world.

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

Of the various branches of electrical investigation, perhaps the most interesting and immediately the most promising is that dealing with alternating currents.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea.

The last people with any ideas are young people.

Let’s just be smart this time. I’m looking for smart.

Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle, Old Age a regret.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

Jesters do often prove prophets.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.

The future influences the present just as much as the past.

No one but a fool is always right.

Of all the inventions of humans, the computer is going to rank near or at the top as history unfolds and we look back. It is the most awesome tool that we have ever invented. I feel incredibly lucky to be at exactly the right place in Silicon Valley, at exactly the right time, historically, where this invention has taken form.

After launching the first version of Facebook for a few thousand users, we would discuss how this should be built for the world. It wasn’t even a thought that maybe it could be us. We always thought it would be someone else doing it.

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.

Time itself comes in drops.

People tried to change my concept of what music is. That music is work, but it’s not like that.

If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion.

Whatever is well said by another, is mine.

There are a few other things that I built when I was at Harvard that were kind of smaller versions of Facebook. One such program was this program called Match. People could enter the different courses that they were taking, and see what other courses would be correlated with the courses they are taking.

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

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

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

There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.

I can no longer type, so I use TalkingPoint and Dragon Dictate. It’s a speech-to-text program, and there’s an add-on for talking which some guys came up with.

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.