September 11 shocked many Americans into an awareness that they had better pay much closer attention to what the U.S. government does in the world and how it is perceived. Many issues have been opened for discussion that were not on the agenda before. That’s all to the good.

It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.

When I left Dortmund, I said it’s not important what people think when you come in but what they think when you leave.

Meditation is a state of mind which looks at everything with complete attention, totally, not just parts of it. And no one can teach you how to be attentive. If any system teaches you how to be attentive, then you are attentive to the system, and that is not attention.

The truth is that the vast majority of Americans are good, fair, and just, and they want their country to reflect those ideals.

I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one.

For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.

In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.

Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.

Enlightenment is always there. Small enlightenment will bring great enlightenment. If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive – that you can touch the miracle of being alive – then that is a kind of enlightenment.

Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.

Assuming if there’s such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?

I don’t care if people think I am an overactor, as long as they enjoy what I do. People who think that would call Van Gogh an overpainter.

I think it’s a myth that American public or any other public is so stupid that they need to be constantly pricked.

Perception often lags behind reality, and I can say from experience that the vast majority of public officials in Louisiana are much better than our reputation holds us to be.

The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love.

There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down. When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. I’ll just put the stool out there and I’ll talk to Mr. Obama and ask him why he didn’t keep all of the promises he made to everybody.

Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls.

Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another they are not cute. They are life-sized.

Read about history, and you become aware that nothing starts with us.

If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.

See things from the boy’s point of view.

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.

The nice thing about being a celebrity is that, if you bore people, they think it’s their fault.

I don’t want people to think of me as sexy.

In memory everything seems to happen to music.

On September 11 2001, America felt its vulnerability even to threats that gather on the other side of the Earth. We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat from any source that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America.

People make jokes about my bosoms, why don’t they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It’s obvious I’ve got big ones and if people want to assume they’re not mine, then let them.

Words, words, words! They shut one off from the universe. Three quarters of the time one’s never in contact with things, only with the beastly words that stand for them.

It doesn’t take long to become aware of the presence of the CIA in Laos.

Many people are alive but don’t touch the miracle of being alive.

I trust my taste. I trust it completely and I always have done, and I’ve always thought it isn’t that different from everybody else’s.

I’m mainstream.

Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

When I was growing up, I wanted to adopt, because I was aware there were kids that didn’t have parents.

The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed.

We misjudge risk if we feel we have some control over it, even if it’s an illusory sense of control.

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?

It’s a very confusing era that we’re in.

Words are more powerful than some noises. Noises won’t last long. Lyrics are so important, and people don’t realise that.

The ‚I think‘ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‚I breathe‘ which actually does accompany them.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

The problem with Yanks is they are wimps.

Depression runs in my family on both sides, and I have to be wary.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

I feel like the thing we can do is celebrate people doing great work and create more cultural momentum and awareness that this is an important thing in the world. So when the next economic crisis hits and people are talking about where to cut from the budget, science isn’t the thing.

I was in Europe and it was at this stage that I fell in love with Americans in uniform. And I continue to have that love affair.

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

My age is very insignificant to me. I don’t think about it, but the world does. The world likes young people in general.

It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.

In fact, the best thing we could do on taxes for all Americans is to simplify the individual tax code. This will be a tough job, but members of both parties have expressed an interest in doing this, and I am prepared to join them.

Is it not important to find out how to listen not only to what is being said but to everything – to the noise in the streets, to the chatter of birds, to the noise of the tramcar, to the restless sea, to the voice of your husband, to your wife, to your friends, to the cry of a baby?

What we have found in this country, and maybe we’re more aware of it now, is one problem that we’ve had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.

There are very few people who really appreciate my shows. People come to the show and they pay and they enjoy it, but I don’t really think most people really understand what they’ve seen.

It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

By stopping flying, you don’t only reduce your own carbon footprint but also that sends a signal to other people around you that the climate crisis is a real thing and that helps push a political movement.

Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind.

The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.