Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn’t any good reason to refer to it.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.

There have been times that I’ve wept as I’ve gone from city to city and I’ve seen how far people have wandered from God.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.

When you are young you tend to do so many things that are not needed. When you get experience, you know what exactly what works for you and you tend to do things that you want.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

I didn’t want to submit to the army and then, on the day of judgment, have God say to me, ‚Why did you do that?‘ This life is a trial, and you realize that what you do is going to be written down for Judgment Day.

I just usually go with my own taste. If I like something, and it happens to be against the law, well, then I might have a problem.

If you are part of a religion that very strongly insists that you believe then to decide not to do that is quite a big hurdle to jump over. You never forget the thought process you went through. It becomes part of your whole intellectual picture.

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?

The man who knows it can’t be done counts the risk, not the reward.

The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

The person who doesn’t scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs.

And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

U2’s best work has always been when we didn’t know what we’re doing.

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

To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

There’s no difference between one’s killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It’s exactly the same thing, or even worse.

Sometimes we look back and 10 years from now we think, ‚Boy, those were great old days.‘ Well, you know, we’re living in the good old days.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

People are more aware now of cities and of different ways of life. I suppose the writing I do is a bit in the past, and I’m not sure it’s the kind of writing I would do if I were starting now.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

The pause between the errors and trials of the day and the hopes of the night.

A financial institution has the task of taking risks, and if it’s a well run institution – say, Goldman Sachs – it tries to cover the potential losses to itself, but only to itself.

If it’s all instruction, you get annoyed with it and bored, and you stop reading. If it’s all entertainment, you read it quite quickly, your heart going pitty-pat, pitty-pat. But when you finish, that’s it. You’re not going to think about it much afterward, apart from the odd nightmare. You’re not going to read that book again.

I’m for women choosing whatever they want to do but they have to really know what they are doing.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.

How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better know them.

Life is a matter of really tough choices.

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.

Things have never been more like the way they are today in history.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

Your philosophy determines whether you will go for the disciplines or continue the errors.

In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.

When in doubt tell the truth.

Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.

If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.

Forgiveness is not a feeling – it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before God. It’s a quality decision that won’t be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

Philosophy is the highest music.

I always wanted to do things right and represent myself as somebody that took the art serious and someone that took the business serious also, so I had time to weigh the options and figure it out and do my best to create the situation that was ideal.

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

In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.

If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn.

Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.

If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

My grandfather was smart and had a whole lot of pride. He didn’t speak a terrible amount, but you could tell there was a ton on his mind – like a quiet acceptance of how life had turned out.

The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.

In every phenomenon the beginning remains always the most notable moment.

Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.

People want to go out and travel around and meet cool people. I could just go live in Vermont, but is that what I really want?

You should do what other people do, unless you have a very good reason not to.

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

There is no love of life without despair of life.

Well, the odds must be against anybody being able to fly around the world in a balloon on the first attempt. All of us who are attempting to go around the world in balloons are effectively flying in experimental craft because these craft cannot be tested.