The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

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

It is a mania shared by philosophers of all ages to deny what exists and to explain what does not exist.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

I learned a great many years ago that in a fight between husband and wife, a third party should never get between the woman’s skillet and the man’s ax-helve.

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

For an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it.

Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.

Even in the 1950s, President Eisenhower was concerned about what he called a campaign of hatred of the U.S. in the Arab world, because of the perception on the Arab street that it supported harsh and oppressive regimes to take their oil.

Don’t run if you can walk. Don’t walk if you can stand. Don’t stand if you can sit. Don’t sit if you can lie down.

If you are ever in doubt as to whether to kiss a pretty girl, always give her the benefit of the doubt.

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

My son complains about headaches. I tell him all the time, when you get out of bed, it’s feet first!

The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness.

I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help – and God’s.

The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.

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.

Understanding does not cure evil, but it is a definite help, inasmuch as one can cope with a comprehensible darkness.

I have to be seen to be believed.

When I was 18, I thought that, to be a romantic, you couldn’t live past 30.

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

He had but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favor of two.

No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.

We can never learn too much of His will towards us, too much of His messages and His advice. The Bible is His word and its study gives at once the foundation for our faith and an inspiration to battle onward in the fight against the tempter.

General consultant to mankind.

The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.

In too many communities, too many young men of color are left behind and seen only as objects of fear. Through initiatives like My Brother’s Keeper, I’m personally committed to changing both perception and reality.

I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel.

Things ain’t what they used to be and never were.

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

I will say this: one of the things that is a pain when you’re expecting children is how much advice unsolicited people give you when you’re not asking for it.

A word to the wise is infuriating.

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.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

The Paralympic Games is about transforming our perception of the world.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

It’s very difficult for the American people to believe that our government, one of the richest on Earth, is also one of the stingiest on Earth.

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

I like the way the stories of my relationships sound to music more than the way they look in print, in gossip columns or in me talking about them in interviews. I think it’s a better way of telling the stories.

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 owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.

All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.

Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.

Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible.

As far as the general public is concerned, I always tell people that you need to look like a dance teacher like you’re looking for a pediatrician.

It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.

Don’t try to be like Jackie. There is only one Jackie. Study computers instead.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

In my experience, many people confuse being cowardly with being nice.

They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.

It’s only I have seen enough of it and the funny thing is now, I know that I’m skinny, because I know there are even smaller clothes in the store. I think I’m big, when I was big, I never thought about it.

I define nothing. Not beauty, not patriotism. I take each thing as it is, without prior rules about what it should be.

If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.