Shall I, that have destroyed my Preservers, return home?

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

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.

I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment.

The end is the beginning of all things, Suppressed and hidden, Awaiting to be released through the rhythm Of pain and pleasure.

Everybody has done something that we wish we didn’t say or do and wish we could take it back.

To destroy is always the first step in any creation.

Death obsesses me, yes it does. I can’t really understand why it doesn’t obsess everyone – I think it does really, I’m just a little more out about it.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

Wonder is the basis of worship.

If you look back at the history of the twentieth century, Germany alone had practically destroyed Russia several times.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.

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.

The difference is too nice – Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.

I was so rude when I was a little girl.

There is no love of life without despair of life.

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

I’m not the same man I used to be, I’m not out hell-raising, stuff like that. I am a changed man.

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.

The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever will be born must destroy a world.

The essence of Richard Nixon is loneliness.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

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.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.

It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.

The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

I’ve always regretted that I never was able to talk openly with my parents, especially with my father. I’ve heard and read so many things about my family that I can no longer believe anything; every relative I question has a completely different story from the last.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers anymore; only the life I have lived. The pain now is part of the happiness then.

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.

How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?

We are anthill men upon an anthill world.

I don’t regret anything.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can’t do that. It’s gone, gone forever.

It’s a question of whether we’re going to go forward into the future, or past to the back.

I’ve written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that’s what’s been fun about looking back.

I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.

Yesterday’s just a memory, tomorrow is never what it’s supposed to be.

Looking back on the production of ‚Nevermind,‘ I’m embarrassed by it now. It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.

I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.

I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

Maria is the best reason to come home.

To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all.