It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

We must accept what science tells us, that man was born from the earth. But, more logical than the scientists who lecture us, we must carry this lesson to its conclusion: that is to say, accept that man was born entirely from the world – not only his flesh and bones but his incredible power of thought.

Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

In a magazine, one can get – from cover to cover – 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony: this is what furthers and what perseveres.

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain: and it is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel.

May be is very well, but Must is the master. It is my duty to show justice without recompense.

It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.

My work is about my life, and what I want to do with it.

A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas.

Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.

Let man live at a distance from God, and the universe remains neutral or hostile to him. But let man believe in God, and immediately all around him the elements, even the irksome, of the inevitable organize themselves into a friendly whole, ordered to the ultimate success of life.

It always seems to me so odd that when a man dies, he takes out with him all the knowledge that he has got in his lifetime whilst sowing his wild oats or winning successes. And he leaves his sons or younger brothers to go through all the work of learning it over again from their own experience.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.

The future influences the present just as much as the past.

The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilised men.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.

There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.

I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.

Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad.

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

There’s this lingering philosophy that movie stars shouldn’t do TV.

When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.

How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?

Life is a series of commas, not periods.

Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.

It is the heart always that sees, before the head can see.

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

On the way back from Mumbai to go meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy named Lee Kuan Yew, who most foreign policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

It is easy to dismiss the world as ‚irrelevant,‘ or consumed by ‚paranoid anti-Americanism,‘ but perhaps not wise.

My philosophy is, it’s always very rewarding when you can make an audience laugh. I don’t mind making fun of myself. I like self-deprecating comedy. But I’d like you to laugh with me occasionally, too.

For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival, liberty is human rights, the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants.

I am not the first Buddha who came upon Earth, nor shall I be the last. In due time, another Buddha will arise in the world – a Holy One, a supremely enlightened One, endowed with wisdom in conduct, auspicious, knowing the universe, an incomparable leader of men, a master of angels and mortals.

Life, if well lived, is long enough.

My life is the road, man. I need to keep moving.

As you get older, time speeds up but life slows down.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.

The best and safest method of philosophizing seems to be first to inquire diligently into the properties of things, and establishing those properties by experiments, and then to proceed more slowly to hypotheses for the explanation of them.

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.