Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

That’s the shock: All cliches are true. The years really do speed by. Life really is as short as they tell you it is. And there really is a God – so do I buy that one? If all the other cliches are true… Hell, don’t pose me that one.

The cautious seldom err.

Nature teaches us that tens of billions of light years may have passed, and life in all of its expressions has always been subjected to an incredible combination of matter and radiation.

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

For if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water’s edge.

For me, education has never been simply a policy issue – it’s personal. Neither of my parents and hardly anyone in the neighborhood where I grew up went to college. But thanks to a lot of hard work and plenty of financial aid, I had the opportunity to attend some of the finest universities in this country.

Children make your life important.

He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

Forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age.

Democracy is not static. It is a living force. Every new idea, every new invention offers opportunity for both good and evil.

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.

No one can pass through life, any more than he can pass through a bit of country, without leaving tracks behind, and those tracks may often be helpful to those coming after him in finding their way.

To learn something but not to do is really not to learn. To know something but not to do is really not to know.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

I suppose, in a way, this has become part of my soul. It is a symbol of my life. Whatever I have done that really matters, I’ve done wearing it. When the time comes, it will be in this that I journey forth. What greater honor could come to an American, and a soldier?

Your emotions are very unstable and should never be the foundation for direction in your life.

Nature is not human hearted.

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.

A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas.

People are getting smarter nowadays; they are letting lawyers, instead of their conscience, be their guide.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

My favorite thing in life is writing about life, specifically the parts of life concerning love. Because, as far as I’m concerned, love is absolutely everything.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

A cat is only itself, representative of the strong forces of life that won’t let go.

I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.

What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.

It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.

Superstition is the poetry of life.

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

As soon as there is life there is danger.

Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.

If a whole bunch of people want to make your life a living hell, they’re gonna do it.

My father will anticipate everything. He will leave you and me no chance to do a great and brilliant deed.

He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

I would fain grow old learning many things.

‚Pure experience‘ is the name I gave to the immediate flux of life which furnishes the material to our later reflection with its conceptual categories.

You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub.

Absence and death are the same – only that in death there is no suffering.

If you get an opportunity to work with David Simon, anybody with good taste would.

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.