He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.

Truth is what works.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.

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

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

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.

As soon as you have a language that has a past tense and a future tense you’re going to say, ‚Where did we come from, what happens next?‘ The ability to remember the past helps us plan the future.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

What we need is a system of thought – you might even call it a religion – that can bind humans together. A system that would fit the Republic of Chad as well as the United States: a system that would supply our idealistic young people with something to believe in.

The way up and the way down are one and the same.

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.

I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

The best and safest method of philosophizing seems to be first to inquire diligently into the properties of things, and establishing those properties by experiments, and then to proceed more slowly to hypotheses for the explanation of them.

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven’t and don’t.

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.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

A man’s delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

Our human compassion binds us the one to the other – not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.

No school of philosophy has ever solved this question of whether being determines consciousness or the other way around. It may be a false antithesis.

Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs.

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

‚Pure experience‘ is the name I gave to the immediate flux of life which furnishes the material to our later reflection with its conceptual categories.

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.

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love.

A clever man commits no minor blunders.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ‚This is a misfortune‘ but ‚To bear this worthily is good fortune.‘

It’s really easy to have a nice philosophy about openness, but moving the world in that direction is a different thing. It requires both understanding where you want to go and being pragmatic about getting there.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.

But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

The wise use of your freedom to make your own decisions is crucial to your spiritual growth, now and for eternity.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle.

Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

To me, if life boils down to one thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving.

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.