It is not necessary that whilst I live I live happily; but it is necessary that so long as I live I should live honourably.

The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.

The happiest people I know as a nation are the Burmese; their brightness and cheeriness are proverbial. Kindness to animals is one of their greatest ‚weaknesses‘; no Burmese will kill an animal, even if it is to put it out of pain.

The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.

Heaven is long-enduring, and earth continues long. The reason why heaven and earth are able to endure and continue thus long is because they do not live of, or for, themselves.

The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle.

In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.

Forever is composed of nows.

My mother was a public school teacher in Virginia, and we didn’t have any money, we just survived on happiness, on being a happy family.

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.

Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world.

Experience praises the most happy the one who made the most people happy.

Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.

While there’s life, there’s hope.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.

I’ve run the Boston Marathon 6 times before. I think the best aspects of the marathon are the beautiful changes of the scenery along the route and the warmth of the people’s support. I feel happier every time I enter this marathon.

Joy is the serious business of Heaven.

The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.

All nature is but art unknown to thee.

I have always reckoned the dignity of the republic of first importance and preferable to life.

Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.

Laughter heals all wounds, and that’s one thing that everybody shares. No matter what you’re going through, it makes you forget about your problems. I think the world should keep laughing.

Life is an unanswered question, but let’s still believe in the dignity and importance of the question.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

You can’t imagine parlor ballads drifting out of high-rise multi-towered buildings. That kind of music existed in a more timeless state of life.

Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.

The foolish man conceives the idea of ‚self.‘ The wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of ‚self;‘ thus, he has a right conception of the world and well concludes that all compounds amassed by sorrow will be dissolved again, but the truth will remain.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell.

Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.

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

Nature abhors annihilation.

Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior, for whose Kingdom it stands, one Savior, crucified, risen, and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe.

It’s the philosophies of being an athlete that carry me today.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.

The universe is not indifferent to our existence – it depends on it.

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

Only the ideas that we really live have any value.

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways – either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength. Thanks to the teachings of Buddha, I have been able to take this second way.