It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

I have some good friends of my own who happen to be gay, and when it comes to gay, straight, or whatever, I’m for anything life-affirmative. I’m for gay power, straight power, male power, female power; everybody should feel empowered without oppressing anyone who’s different.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

Remember happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

From my perspective, I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That’s what I believe, and it was very, very strong in the forest.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.

If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty.

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.

Thought must be divided against itself before it can come to any knowledge of itself.

North Americans don’t understand… that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity.

Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.

There is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution.

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

On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down .

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.

You know, one race will not be a survivor if the other one dies, and that’s something that we should think about.

High-quality early-childhood programs and health coverage have expanded, and the number of mentoring relationships for at-risk youth has risen dramatically. That progress is encouraging, but it’s not evenly distributed.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.

It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more.

It put our energies to sleep and made visionaries of us – dreamers and indolent… It is good to begin life poor; it is good to begin life rich – these are wholesome; but to begin it prospectively rich! The man who has not experienced it cannot imagine the curse of it.

So vast is art, so narrow human wit.

I’m half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times.

Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

Physical comforts cannot subdue mental suffering, and if we look closely, we can see that those who have many possessions are not necessarily happy. In fact, being wealthy often brings even more anxiety.

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?

I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.

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.

Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world.

When you’re doing a film and the majority of the film is cast black, for me, it’s most important to get people to view those movies as just movies, as just good movies. At the end of the day, regardless of the color of the cast, we’re all doing the same thing in this business: trying to make a good film.

I don’t think there is any philosophy that suggests having polio is a good thing.

For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.

We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

‚Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.

I always was a rich person because money’s not related to happiness.

Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.

Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you.

Applause is a receipt, not a bill.

It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.

You will always have partial points of view, and you’ll always have the story behind the story that hasn’t come out yet. And any form of journalism you’re involved with is going to be up against a biased viewpoint and partial knowledge.

Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately.

Nothing cannot exist forever.