I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.

I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realize that we do not know the answers to different questions. This attitude of mind – this attitude of uncertainty – is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire.

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.

It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are… than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

There are various eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes: and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth.

A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over… is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen.

Whenever a fellow tells me he’s bipartisan, I know he’s going to vote against me.

In the history of medicine, it is not always the great scientist or the learned doctor who goes forward to discover new fields, new avenues, new ideas.

If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy.

I think it’s a very good thing to leave your country and look at it from afar.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face nothing new under the sun.

The child inside of you knows how to take things as they come, how to deal most effectively and happily with everything and everyone it encounters on this planet. If you can recapture that childlike essence of your being, you can stay ‚forever young at heart.‘

It’s the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards.

There is always another way to say the same thing that doesn’t look at all like the way you said it before. I don’t know what the reason for this is. I think it is somehow a representation of the simplicity of nature.

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

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

It’s useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.

It seems the older you get, the more life comes into focus.

There is something curiously boring about somebody else’s happiness.

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.

It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.

You just want something else that someone else has, but that doesn’t mean what you have isn’t beautiful, because people always want what you have, and you always want what they have – no one is ever 100 per cent like, ‚Yes, I’m the bomb dot com – from head to toe!‘

No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.

My age is very insignificant to me. I don’t think about it, but the world does. The world likes young people in general.

Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.

So many people are looking at what’s wrong, and I try to encourage them to look at what’s right in their life. A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

Reality simply consists of different points of view.

Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.

Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.

I walk every day, and I look at the mountains and the fields and the small city, and I say: ‚Oh my God, what a blessing.‘ Then you realise it’s important to put it in a context beyond this woman, this man, this city, this country, this universe.

There are no facts, only interpretations.

The two things in the world we all share in this world are laughter and pain. We’ve all got problems. The levels of those problems vary, but we’ve all got problems. When you can take things that are painful and make them funny, that’s a gift – to you and your audience.

The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.

I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?

Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.

Many people find the universe confusing – it’s not.

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.

It’s presumptuous to say you know how somebody feels.

There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.

Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.

If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I’ll die someday, and one day, they will too.

I never get too high on my stardom or what I can do.

Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don’t let yourself believe it will happen to you.

There can be no better grounding for a lifetime as an author than to see humanity in all its various guises through the lens of the reporter for the town.

My mother cooked like a scientist. She had a giant Chinese-style cleaver that she chopped with, and a cupboard full of spices.

I’m a meathead, man. You’ve got smart people, and you’ve got dumb people. I just happen to be dumb.

I put up my thumb and it blotted out the planet Earth.

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

People have been fed this diet of pabulum, rights, and impulsive freedom. There’s just an absolute starvation for the other side of the story.

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

The idea is to try to give all the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another.

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.

I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.