He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

My philosophy is simple: It’s a down-home, common, horse-sense approach to things.

To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

States are not moral agents.

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

There is nothing permanent except change.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

The more violent the storm, the quicker it passes.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

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

Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.

Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science. Particularly physics.

There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.

Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

The art is long, life is short.

Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

I did used to have nightmares about the idea that when I die, there is a spark of consciousness which basically creates the world. ‚Is the world going to disappear if this spark of consciousness disappears? And how do I know it won’t? How do I know there’s anything there except what I’m conscious of?‘

It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.

Man is made to adore and to obey: but if you will not command him, if you give him nothing to worship, he will fashion his own divinities, and find a chieftain in his own passions.

He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes.

It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.

Man consists of two parts, his mind and his body, only the body has more fun.

We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.

Opposite to godliness is atheism in profession, and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind, that it never had many professors.

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

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

Somewhere, everywhere, now hidden, now apparent in what ever is written down, is the form of a human being. If we seek to know him, are we idly occupied?

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.

Clever men are good, but they are not the best.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

No one can pass through life, any more than he can pass through a bit of country, without leaving tracks behind, and those tracks may often be helpful to those coming after him in finding their way.

We’re all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition.

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.

As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do?

My fate cannot be mastered; it can only be collaborated with and thereby, to some extent, directed. Nor am I the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger.

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

A fool is wise in his eyes.

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone’s imagination.

It’s possible – you can never know – that the universe exists only for me. If so, it’s sure going well for me, I must admit.

Life would pall if it were all sugar; salt is bitter if taken by itself; but when tasted as part of the dish, it savours the meat. Difficulties are the salt of life.

Knowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom.

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.