Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.

It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, – superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.

The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation.

The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.

If a man had more than one life, I think a little hanging would not hurt this one; but after he is once dead, we cannot bring him back, no matter how sorry we may be; so the boy shall be pardoned.

My life is mine to remember.

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‚I’m with you kid. Let’s go.‘

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.

At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.

I think, often, people who run away are people who got into things most enthusiastically, and then they want more. They just demand more of life than what is happening in the moment. Sometimes this is a great mistake, as it’s always a good deal different than you expect it.

Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice.

I’m rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it’s no longer his… I just see what people make of it.

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

I like some animals more than some people, some people more than some animals.

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.

Old age may have its limitations and challenges, but in spite of them, our latter years can be some of the most rewarding and fulfilling of our lives.

Each man is always in the middle of the surface of the earth and under the zenith of his own hemisphere, and over the centre of the earth.

To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.

Life isn’t fair, but God is.

It’s the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards.

The Italians and Spanish, the Chinese and Vietnamese see food as part of a larger, more essential and pleasurable part of daily life. Not as an experience to be collected or bragged about – or as a ritual like filling up a car – but as something else that gives pleasure, like sex or music, or a good nap in the afternoon.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.

For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time.

A lot of us grow up and we grow out of the literal interpretation that we get when we’re children, but we bear the scars all our life. Whether they’re scars of beauty or scars of ugliness, it’s pretty much in the eye of the beholder.

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.

All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.

Genius goes around the world in its youth incessantly apologizing for having large feet. What wonder that later in life it should be inclined to raise those feet too swiftly to fools and bores.

I still make sure to go, at least once every year, to a country where things cannot be taken for granted, and where there is either too much law and order or too little.

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.

My life is not unlike Truman’s. I can’t go anywhere.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.

Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.

Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

It is better to travel well than to arrive.

Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.

We’re all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by nothing.

Take advantage of the years of pioneering efforts. You might find this boring, as the young want to rush head on, as it were.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

My experience with power, you can maintain it, or you get it taken from you. You get you some newfound power and go crazy, and it get taken from you quick.

Forgotten is forgiven.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much – if at all.

People talk to people who perceive nothing, who have open eyes and see nothing; they shall talk to them and receive no answer; they shall adore those who have ears and hear nothing; they shall burn lamps for those who do not see.

It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‚I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.‘ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ‚This is a misfortune‘ but ‚To bear this worthily is good fortune.‘

I think what you’re seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they’ve got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out.

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.

Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

There’s no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.

We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.

See things from the boy’s point of view.

The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.

When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it.

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

I do have a lot of gays in my family now, but some will never come out.