Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

I was becoming post-ideological.

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.

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.

I live halfway between reality and theater at all times. And I was born this way.

If you want to get each individual’s honest opinion, you don’t want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.

Somewhere, everywhere, now hidden, now apparent in what ever is written down, is the form of a human being. If we seek to know him, are we idly occupied?

Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.

Character is destiny.

Fear is the mother of morality.

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

Our heart glows, and secret unrest gnaws at the root of our being. Dealing with the unconscious has become a question of life for us.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

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

I was never ignorant, as far as being experienced in classrooms and learning about different subjects and actually soaking it up, so I checked into college for a little bit. I took classes at a community college in West L.A. I took psychology, English, and philosophy.

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.

Many people look at me and think they know me but they don’t at all. This is the real me. I am a humble person, a feeling person. A person who cares about others, who wants to help others.

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

My philosophy is simple: It’s a down-home, common, horse-sense approach to things.

The false is nothing but an imitation of the true.

Assuming if there’s such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?

Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.

Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.

There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.

All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

Who can exhaust a man? Who knows a man’s resources?

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

It’s hard to be clear about who you are when you are carrying around a bunch of baggage from the past. I’ve learned to let go and move more quickly into the next place.

Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.

‚Evil men have no songs.‘ How is it that the Russians have songs?

I found it hard to be young. When I was married in my twenties, I hated being regarded as ‚the little wife.‘ You don’t know what it was like then! I’d never even written a cheque. I had to ask my husband for money for groceries.

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.

Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

Our faith is faith in someone else’s faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

My music seems to have a bigger mission than I have, which is very soothing but also very strange because people see more in me than I see, which can be terrifying.

Only the shallow know themselves.

I don’t like to commit myself about heaven and hell – you see, I have friends in both places.

We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal’s ‚Pensees‘ and read, ‚I am the great silent spaces between worlds.‘

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it.

There is no birth of consciousness without pain.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.

I have found that hollow, which even I had relied on for solid.

I know a lot of artists say this, but it’s hard to put myself in a box. I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming form a special place. There’s no tricks.