Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

The first book I ever really read was Plato’s ‚Republic,‘ and then I had to go over that five times or something.

Man’s greatness lies in his power of thought.

I don’t think that faith, whatever you’re being faithful about, really can be scientifically explained. And I don’t want to explain this whole life business through truth, science. There’s so much mystery. There’s so much awe.

Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.

Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.

Loving others always costs us something and requires effort. And you have to decide to do it on purpose. You can’t wait for a feeling to motivate you.

He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

Man was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired.

Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.

Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, uses that something to support their own existence.

All generalizations are false, including this one.

Our philosophy is that we care about people first.

Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.

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

There is nothing so stable as change.

No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.

There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.

Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

Religion is the opium of the masses.

I’m very aware and very conscious of the path I chose in life, and very aware of the path I didn’t choose.

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.

We spend so much time sublimatin‘, thinkin‘ about, ‚What am I going to have for lunch, dinner?‘

The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.

For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.

Things in themselves have no life in them. A car can’t comfort or encourage you. A house means nothing if there’s no life and love inside.

If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don’t know how to read, you don’t know how to decide. That’s the great thing about our country – we’re a democracy of readers, and we should keep it that way.

Life is a matter of really tough choices.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

In matters of truth the fact that you don’t want to publish something is, nine times out of ten, a proof that you ought to publish it.

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 don’t have any regrets. I made all my own decisions.

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.

Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places.

The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.

To eat is to appropriate by destruction.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

Use, do not abuse… neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking theres some kind of change.

No one can outrun death. It will catch up to all of us eventually.

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

Sin is geographical.

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony: this is what furthers and what perseveres.

My philosophy is that if I have any money I invest it in new ventures and not have it sitting around.

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

What we need is a system of thought – you might even call it a religion – that can bind humans together. A system that would fit the Republic of Chad as well as the United States: a system that would supply our idealistic young people with something to believe in.

I’m an idealist without illusions.

Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.

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

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.