That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

An egg today is better than a hen to-morrow.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.

If some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to the study of the Yi, and then I might come to be without great faults.

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.

The earth’s crust has not yet stopped heaving and plunging under our feet. Mountain ranges are still being thrust up on the horizon. Granites are still growing under the continental masses. Nor has the organic world ceased to produce new buds at the tips of its countless branches.

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

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance.

Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

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

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

By the time we see that climate change is really bad, your ability to fix it is extremely limited… The carbon gets up there, but the heating effect is delayed. And then the effect of that heat on the species and ecosystem is delayed. That means that even when you turn virtuous, things are actually going to get worse for quite a while.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature are shot down wholesale.

A lot of psychological principles and even medical principles, you see them coming around to what the Bible said hundreds of years ago: a merry heart is good like a medicine.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

Water is the driving force of all nature.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

It is the heart always that sees, before the head can see.

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

I am against nature. I don’t dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.

A lie cannot live.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

No one can pass through life, any more than he can pass through a bit of country, without leaving tracks behind, and those tracks may often be helpful to those coming after him in finding their way.

You shall, I question not, find a way to the top if you diligently seek for it; for nature hath placed nothing so high that it is out of the reach of industry and valor.

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

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

Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

If I get stuck, I look at a book that tells me how someone else did it. I turn the pages, and then I say, ‚Oh, I forgot that bit,‘ then close the book and carry on. Finally, after you’ve figured out how to do it, you read how they did it and find out how dumb your solution is and how much more clever and efficient theirs is!

He who hath many friends hath none.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

There should be a point to movies. Sure, you’re giving people a diversion from the cold world for a bit, but at the same time, you pass on some facts and rules and maybe a little bit of wisdom.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

If we don’t plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And you don’t have to be, you know, a brilliant biochemist and you don’t have to have an IQ of 150. Just common sense tells you to be kind, ninny, fool. Be kind.

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.

You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub.

Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.

If I see a mountain, I just pick up and hike it.

Behold the child, by Nature’s kindly law pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.

Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

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

All the world lies warm in one heart, yet the Sierra seems to get more light than other mountains. The weather is mostly sunshine embellished with magnificent storms, and nearly everything shines from base to summit – the rocks, streams, lakes, glaciers, irised falls, and the forests of silver fir and silver pine.

It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

I got to Africa. I got the opportunity to go and learn, not about any animal, but chimpanzees. I was living in my dream world, the forest in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. It was Tanganyika when I began.