Take care to sell your horse before he dies. The art of life is passing losses on.

Once you fully apprehend the vacuity of a life without struggle, you are equipped with the basic means of salvation.

The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life – knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

Live to learn, and you will really learn to live.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

Fate pulls you in different directions.

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

If we don’t know life, how can we know death?

You know, my Grandpop Finnegan used to have an expression: he used to say, ‚Joey, the guy in Olyphant’s out of work, it’s an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law’s out of work, it’s a recession. When you’re out of work, it’s a depression.‘

There is no love of life without despair of life.

We spend our lives, all of us, waiting for the great day, the great battle, or the deed of power. But that external consummation is not given to many: nor is it necessary. So long as our being is tensed, directed with passion, towards that which is the spirit of all things, then that spirit will emerge from our own hidden, nameless effort.

Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.

Life is an adventure, it’s not a package tour.

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

When it’s your time, it is your time.

Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.

Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.

It seems the older you get, the more life comes into focus.

It is not well to make great changes in old age.

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.

A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

It is better to live rich than to die rich.

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

The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.

I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone’s imagination.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.

As you get older, time speeds up but life slows down.

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.

If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.

Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don’t let yourself believe it will happen to you.

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.

Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.

Life, if well lived, is long enough.

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.

The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.

Although the life of a person is in a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.

The spiritual is the parent of the practical.

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.

Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.

If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different.

To me, comedy is just twisting reality. It’s commenting or observing or twisting life.

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.

I don’t see the wisdom in modern politicians that I once saw in men like Dean Acheson, David Bruce, or George Marshall. In my day, the northeastern establishment dominated foreign policy formulation, but the composition and distribution of our population is very different today.

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.

There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?

Teach us that wealth is not elegance, that profusion is not magnificence, that splendor is not beauty.