In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.

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

We should not look at terrorism from the nameplates – which group they belong to, what is their geographical location, who are the victims. These individual groups or names will keep changing.

Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions – Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.

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.

O‘ What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!

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

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.

Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.

When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war.

There is nothing that living things do that cannot be understood from the point of view that they are made of atoms acting according to the laws of physics.

I always have an optimistic view, no matter what it is.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

When we understand string theory, we will know how the universe began. It won’t have much effect on how we live, but it is important to understand where we come from and what we can expect to find as we explore.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.

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.‘

I wake up some mornings and sit and have my coffee and look out at my beautiful garden, and I go, ‚Remember how good this is. Because you can lose it.‘

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

I think that, ah, I’m a very goofy sort of person in many ways.

I don’t try to control my days.

Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.

We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery.

To realize that you are not your thoughts is when you begin to awaken spiritually.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

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

If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.

No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

I really haven’t had that exciting of a life. There are a lot of things I wish I would have done, instead of just sitting around and complaining about having a boring life. So I pretty much like to make it up. I’d rather tell a story about somebody else.

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

Mediocre theoretical physicists make no progress. They spend all their time understanding other people’s progress.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

Sports are basically our way of feeling sorry for ourselves. Most men can’t become athletes. We’re watching guys who actually made it. We see them dunking and making touchdowns. Then we think about ourselves when we were younger.

If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life.

I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

If you have the opportunity to play this game of life you need to appreciate every moment. A lot of people don’t appreciate the moment until it’s passed.

A man never tells you anything until you contradict him.

It’s possible – you can never know – that the universe exists only for me. If so, it’s sure going well for me, I must admit.

Sometimes I just sit still and enjoy God’s presence.

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

Being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical.

I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.

Without stirring abroad, One can know the whole world; Without looking out of the window One can see the way of heaven. The further one goes The less one knows.

In the fight between you and the world, back the world.

The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

We’re in very bad trouble if we don’t understand the planet we’re trying to save.

From the FA to UEFA and FIFA, there’s a naivety, a lack of knowledge and understanding and packed with people who are out of touch.

I have found that hollow, which even I had relied on for solid.

You always have to remember that if you say something negative, it’s going to come back to haunt you.

As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.

His was a great sin who first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few hours.

The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

All honor’s wounds are self-inflicted.