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

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

At the heart of the Irish economy has always been the philosophy of tax competitiveness. On the cranky left, that is very annoying; I can see that.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.

Development of outlook naturally begins with a respect for God… Reverence to God and reverence for one’s neighbor and reverence for oneself as a servant of God.

I always wonder when it was that I was embraced.

Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.

Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

I know now that there is no one thing that is true – it is all true.

Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.

The main rule to me is to honor God with your life. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others. But that’s really the essence of the Christian faith.

I’m fascinated by the fact that we can’t grasp anything about time.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.

If an eloquent speaker speak not the truth, is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

He was an embittered atheist, the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

What was God doing before the divine creation?

I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

What is imponderable in the world is greater than what we can handle.

Truth is a pathless land.

It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

I don’t write the books. God writes the books and delivers the speeches.

Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.

Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

If we do discover a complete theory, it should be in time understandable in broad principle by everyone. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people be able to take part in the discussion of why we and the universe exist.

I don’t think that the total creation took place in six days as we now measure time. If we can confirm, say, the Big Bang theory, that doesn’t at all cause me to question my faith that God created the Big Bang.

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

In fact men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth – often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you cannot get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable.

Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.

I believe God wants you to have money to pay your bills, send your kids to college and do charity work and build orphanages. There’s the teaching that we’re supposed to be poor to show that we’re humble. I don’t buy that. I think we’re supposed to be leaders. We’re supposed to excel.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Creation is a miracle of daily recurrence. ‚A miracle a minute‘ would not be a bad slogan for God.

God doesn’t dwell in the wooden, stony or earthen idols. His abode is in our feelings, our thoughts.

Many a man thinks he is patient when, in reality, he is indifferent.

Out of 6 billion humans, the troublemakers are just a handful.

If you do things, whether it’s acting or music or painting, do it without fear – that’s my philosophy. Because nobody can arrest you and put you in jail if you paint badly, so there’s nothing to lose.

Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.

Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn’t enough and you have to go and get shot or something.

The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever will be born must destroy a world.

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

God answers prayers, but he doesn’t always answer it your way.

No one even knows one percent of the fabulous history of Man; but thanks to history, we know about occurrences that go beyond the limits of the imaginable.