If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.

I want to go and go, and then drop dead in the middle of something I’m loving to do. And if that doesn’t happen, if I wind up sitting in a wheelchair, at least I’ll have my high heels on.

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

Sadly, of course, there is real evil in the world. You watch the news, and you see all of the people suffering and so much cruelty.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

Much learning does not teach understanding.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

I was never ignorant, as far as being experienced in classrooms and learning about different subjects and actually soaking it up, so I checked into college for a little bit. I took classes at a community college in West L.A. I took psychology, English, and philosophy.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

Eight years ago, you may remember Hillary and I were rivals for the Democratic nomination. We battled for a year and a half. Let me tell you, it was tough, because Hillary was tough. I was worn out. She was doing everything I was doing, but just like Ginger Rogers, it was backwards in heels.

Both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom: the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The ‚I think‘ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‚I breathe‘ which actually does accompany them.

If you were to destroy the belief in immortality in mankind, not only love but every living force on which the continuation of all life in the world depended, would dry up at once.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.

If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?

What we need is a system of thought – you might even call it a religion – that can bind humans together. A system that would fit the Republic of Chad as well as the United States: a system that would supply our idealistic young people with something to believe in.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist.

They say it is the first step that costs the effort. I do not find it so. I am sure I could write unlimited ‚first chapters‘. I have indeed written many.

I was a bit challenged when I was younger to stay on the right path.

When facing a difficult task, act as though it is impossible to fail. If you are going after Moby Dick, take along the tartar sauce.

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men… We are who we are because they were who they were. It’s wise to know where you come from, who called your name.

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

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

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.

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.

I have many regrets, and I’m sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret… if you have any sense, and if you don’t regret them, maybe you’re stupid.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Lord keep us all from sin. Teach us how to walk circumspectly; enable us to guard our minds against error of doctrine, our hearts against wrong feelings, and our lives against evil actions.

Character is destiny.

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?

Teach us that wealth is not elegance, that profusion is not magnificence, that splendor is not beauty.

I feel a distaste for hunting, first because of a kind of Buddhist respect for the unity and sacredness of all life, and also because the pursuit of a hare or chamois strikes me as a kind of ‚escape of energy,‘ that is, the expenditure of our effort in an illusory end, one devoid of profit.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

As far as a glass ceiling, I feel that all you can do is give it your absolute best with whatever gifts the universe has given you. And if you make it in some way that other people can recognize, that’s fine. But even if you don’t quote-unquote make it, you’re fine if you’ve given it your whole heart and soul.

There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and in the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it.

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.

I’m sure I’ve changed my mind about something. Inevitably, when we grow up – as we get more experience and wiser. Well, I’ve changed my mind about some food that I didn’t like when I was young.

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

Truth is what works.

Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.

I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand Points of Light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

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

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

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity… The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.

Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.