Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.

I don’t write the books. God writes the books and delivers the speeches.

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

Death is one moment, and life is so many of them.

A lot of psychological principles and even medical principles, you see them coming around to what the Bible said hundreds of years ago: a merry heart is good like a medicine.

A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.

I would never want a book’s autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books.

Even with all the advantages of retrospect, and a lot of witnesses dead and gone, you can’t make your life look as if you intended it or you were consistent. All you can show is how you dealt with various hands.

A little over 5% of the world’s population produces almost 29% of the world’s goods and services.

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.

So many writers don’t like to write… I like to write, and sometimes I’m afraid I like it too much, because when I get into work, I don’t want to leave it. And as a result, I’ll go for days and days and days without leaving my house.

To me, comedy is just twisting reality. It’s commenting or observing or twisting life.

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

All the learnin‘ my father paid for was a bit o‘ birch at one end and an alphabet at the other.

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.

A man can take a little bourbon without getting drunk, but if you hold his mouth open and pour in a quart, he’s going to get sick on it.

I didn’t really want to live, so anything that was an investment in time made me angry… but also I just felt sad. When the hopelessness is hurting you, it’s the fixtures and fittings that finish you off.

Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.

I’ve never had writer’s block.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

You accept that this civilisation could be abolished and life will begin later on after a few thousand years because that is something that has happened in the history of this planet. When you have peace in yourself and accept, then you are calm enough to do something, but if you are carried by despair there is no hope.

I love great journalism. I appreciate it. I love a good, you know, I love good news stories. I love great books. I love great articles. I appreciate them so much, and they’ve been part of my education as a woman.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life.

The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

My life is not unlike Truman’s. I can’t go anywhere.

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.

We conceal it from ourselves in vain – we must always love something. In those matters seemingly removed from love, the feeling is secretly to be found, and man cannot possibly live for a moment without it.

There is nothing permanent except change.

In football, it’s the job of the player to play, the coach to coach, the official to officiate. Each guy is charged with upholding his end, nothing more. In golf, the player, coach and official are rolled into one, and they overlap completely. Golf really is the best microcosm of life – or at least the way life should be.

If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.

You may delay, but time will not.

Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don’t let yourself believe it will happen to you.

There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold.

The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.

There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.

A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is.

At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.

Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

There can be economy only where there is efficiency.

The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency.

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.