Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions.

The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

Better to have beasts that let themselves be killed than men who run away.

In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

We were born to die and we die to live. As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower in heaven.

Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.

Enthusiasm is the most important thing in life.

Plato is my friend; Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.

Hope is the magic carpet that transports us from the present moment into the realm of infinite possibilities.

Nature is relentless and unchangeable, and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons and actions are understandable to man or not.

Religion is not a department of life; it is something that enters into the whole of it.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

I never felt settled or calm. You can’t really commit to life when you feel that.

I find myself hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.

There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.

Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: ‚War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills.‘

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

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.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‚try to be a little kinder.‘

My message to all the activists is to just keep going, and I know it really may seem impossible and hopeless sometimes – it always does – so you just have to keep going because if you try hard enough and long enough you will make a difference.

There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

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

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.

I had nothing growing up, but I always wanted to be ‚sexy,‘ even before I knew what the word was.

Sin is geographical.

Life can be boring unless you put some effort into it.

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottage princes‘ palaces.

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

I’ve been afraid of people playing their life away with too many toys.

I’m reasonably optimistic about the future, especially the future of the United States – for the century, at least.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

Most of us have hoped and prayed for something to happen a certain way, but it didn’t. And when this happened, we had a choice to make: to react with offense toward God or to trust Him anyway.

We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.

Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.

Character is destiny.

I think women want freedom. They want to be empowered. They want hope. They want love; they want all the things that I want, and I’m not afraid to say those things and act on them, and I think that’s why they identify with me.

Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.

There is nothing permanent except change.

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.

I’ve read the last page of the Bible. It’s all going to turn out all right.

Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.

We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.