I don’t pretend to understand the Universe – it’s a great deal bigger than I am.

If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is.

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

Some people never go crazy, What truly horrible lives they must live.

I’m a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I’m even afraid of it – it’s a learned affectation and it’s just stuck on me like decals. Now I pray for humility because that comes from inside out.

Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.

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?

If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat.

If you believe in science, like I do, you believe that there are certain laws that are always obeyed.

I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.

Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‚Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?‘ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough.

The universe is transformation: life is opinion.

The best of us must sometimes eat our words.

A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.

Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.

Life is a song to me.

At first when I heard about climate change, I was a climate denier. I didn’t think it was happening. Because if there really was an existential crisis like that, that would threaten our civilisation, we wouldn’t be focusing on anything else. That would be our first priority. So I didn’t understand how that added up.

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

I came to China to follow my star and to steep myself in the raw regions of the universe.

Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.

What the mind doesn’t understand, it worships or fears.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

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

I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much – if at all.

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

I set records that will never be equaled. In fact, I hope 90% of them don’t even get printed.

There are no big problems, there are just a lot of little problems.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.

Proselytism is solemn nonsense; it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

Respect the burden.

People always tell you, ‚Be humble. Be humble.‘ When was the last time someone told you to be amazing? Be great! Be great! Be awesome! Be awesome!

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?

We do not pray to God to instruct Him as to what He should do; neither for a moment must we presume to dictate the method of the divine working.

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.

Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.

From the dust of the earth, from the common elementary fund, the Creator has made Homo sapiens. From the same material he has made every other creature, however noxious and insignificant to us. They are earth-born companions and our fellow mortals.

I admire people who dare to take the language, English, and understand it and understand the melody.

I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.

The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed.

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.

Men freely believe that which they desire.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident, because when you get overconfident, that’s when something snaps up and bites you.

This is not a bad life.

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.