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?‘

No, I’m not a French designer either. I’m from nowhere. I’m a European, old European is all I am.

The problem with me, as far as getting married and having a family, is that my comedy is so important to me. So I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good a dad as my dad.

I don’t have any secrets I need kept any more.

We’re all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made.

I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‚cos that’s just… that’s just telling yourself a lie.

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

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.

Cowardice… is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend functioning of the imagination.

Listening has importance only when one is not projecting one’s own desires through which one listens.

The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.

I know I’m a good professional, I know that no one’s harder on me than myself and that’s never going to change, under any circumstances.

Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.

I’ve noticed a terrible thing, which is I will agree to anything if it’s far enough in the future.

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.

I’m tired of fighting. I’ve always known that I can’t be an action star all my life.

It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life – knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.

Nature abhors annihilation.

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.

The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

Individuals need to be willing to face truth about their attitudes, behaviors, even what we want out of life.

Men seldom, or rather never for a length of time and deliberately, rebel against anything that does not deserve rebelling against.

The soul is your innermost being. The presence that you are beyond form. The consciousness that you are beyond form, that is the soul. That is who you are in essence.

If we are to be happy, we must first react against our tendency to follow the line of least resistance, a tendency that causes us either to remain as we are, or to look primarily to activities external to ourselves for what will provide new impetus to our lives.

I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.

I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

I’m super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I’m critical of other people, too – I try not to be, though.

Observe all men, thyself most.

Religion is the opium of the masses.

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

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

I can never say ‚why‘ about anything I do. I suppose I can say ‚how‘ and ‚when‘ and ‚what.‘ But ‚why‘ is impenetrable to me.

I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.

To me, business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.

When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.

I am a little too absorbed by science to be able to philosophise much; but the more I look into myself, the more I find myself possessed by the conviction that it is only the science of Christ running through all things, that is to say true mystical science, that really matters. I let myself get caught up in the game when I geologise.

Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: ‚War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills.‘

You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.

I still make sure to go, at least once every year, to a country where things cannot be taken for granted, and where there is either too much law and order or too little.

Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries.

Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.

If I went back to my 20-year-old self, what I would tell my 20-year-old self is, ‚You don’t know anything.‘ Because everyone, when they’re young, they think they know what’s going on in the world, and you don’t.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.

The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.