Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.

Often, I can scarcely hear any one speaking to me; the tones yes, but not the actual words; yet as soon as any one shouts, it is unbearable. What will come of all this, heaven only knows!

And, after all, what is a lie? ‚Tis but the truth in a masquerade.

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.

The study and knowledge of the universe would somehow be lame and defective were no practical results to follow.

I kinda live where I find myself.

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

The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.

Non-violence is the article of faith.

Man is made to adore and to obey: but if you will not command him, if you give him nothing to worship, he will fashion his own divinities, and find a chieftain in his own passions.

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

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

If human beings were shown what they’re really like, they’d either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

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

One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.

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

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

In everything one thing is impossible: rationality.

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.

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop thinking. I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking.

My grandfather was smart and had a whole lot of pride. He didn’t speak a terrible amount, but you could tell there was a ton on his mind – like a quiet acceptance of how life had turned out.

Such as we are made of, such we be.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty – his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.

And no, we don’t know where it will lead. We just know there’s something much bigger than any of us here.

I can never say ‚why‘ about anything I do. I suppose I can say ‚how‘ and ‚when‘ and ‚what.‘ But ‚why‘ is impenetrable to me.

I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman leave to us.

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

‚Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.

The lie is a condition of life.

Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

If I get stuck, I look at a book that tells me how someone else did it. I turn the pages, and then I say, ‚Oh, I forgot that bit,‘ then close the book and carry on. Finally, after you’ve figured out how to do it, you read how they did it and find out how dumb your solution is and how much more clever and efficient theirs is!

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

A God without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature.

There are women who can make you feel more with their bodies and their souls, but these are the exact women who will turn the knife into you right in front of the crowd. Of course, I expect this, but the knife still cuts.

Nobody knows me.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing.

Though men determine, the gods doo dispose: and oft times many things fall out betweene the cup and the lip.

You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.

Well, the future for me is already a thing of the past.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

The degree of one’s emotions varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts.