Listen to many, speak to a few.

Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men.

Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.

There is always another way to say the same thing that doesn’t look at all like the way you said it before. I don’t know what the reason for this is. I think it is somehow a representation of the simplicity of nature.

Silence is the mother of truth.

Throughout my career, I fed off the fuel of people not being able to understand me.

When I got somethin‘ to say, I’ll say it.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.

I think some of my colleagues‘ spicier lines are distracting. They draw attention away from what the justice is trying to say.

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.

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.

I know what I do for my team and what my teammates expect of me on both ends of the floor.

I took the vow of celibacy in 1906. I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of making the vow. She had no objection.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

I love that for Barack, there is no such thing as ‚us‘ and ‚them‘ – he doesn’t care whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or none of the above… he knows that we all love our country… and he’s always ready to listen to good ideas… he’s always looking for the very best in everyone he meets.

A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.

You can’t talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.

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.

In a certain way, it’s the sound of the words, the inflection and the way the song is sung and the way it fits the melody and the way the syllables are on the tongue that has as much of the meaning as the actual, literal words.

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

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

Don’t ever call a guy first. The thing they want the most is whatever they can’t have. It sounds really juvenile, but it works.

People like to hear the word ‚love.‘

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

I don’t have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

Smiles are the language of love.

All of my friends who have younger siblings who are going to college or high school – my number one piece of advice is: You should learn how to program.

Language is the dress of thought.

When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, ‚Did you sleep good?‘ I said ‚No, I made a few mistakes.‘

Don’t go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you’ll land in trouble too big for you.

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.

Counsel with your parents is a privilege at any age.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

Kids who have an understanding of how and why their feelings are what they are are much more likely to talk to us about what’s happening, and they have better skills to work it out.

I don’t like people going behind my back.

The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less appealing as you get older. At some point in your life, your tolerance level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there’s nothing really to talk about.

A man never tells you anything until you contradict him.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.

The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It’s inflammatory.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things.

The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.

You can stroke people with words.

The reason why men do not obey us, is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.

I try to speak in a way that people can understand.

Every man over forty is a scoundrel.

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.

I hope that Facebook and other Internet technologies were able to help people, just like we hope that we help them communicate and organize and do whatever they want to every single day, but I don’t pretend that if Facebook didn’t exist, that this wouldn’t even be possible. Of course, it would have.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; the Named is the mother of all things.

Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.