The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.

An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity, is this: look at the peacock; it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth… Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

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

Love is a serious mental disease.

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.

We do not know where to look, or what to look for, when something is memorized. We do not know what it means, or what change there is in the nervous system, when a fact is learned. This is a very important problem which has not been solved at all.

The human mind is our fundamental resource.

The intellectual is different from the ordinary man, but only in certain sections of his personality, and even then not all the time.

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

In the West, as well as some other parts of the world, the personal sense of ego tends to predominate, whereas in other areas, there is a more collective sense of ego. This collective ego emphasizes the ‚we‘ rather than the ‚I.‘

We live in an imperfect world, and imperfect people surround us every day.

A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.

Death and genitals are things that frighten people, and when people are frightened, they develop means of concealment and aggression. It is common sense.

But to me nothing – the negative, the empty – is exceedingly powerful.

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.

I do not, in fact, use many puns. Certainly there are far fewer than people believe. But I suspect the ones I do occasionally use tend to hang around in people’s memories for a while.

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

What you see, but can’t see over is as good as infinite.

Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.

The sons of Judah have to choose that God may again choose them. The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory.

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

The less you know, the more you believe.

See things from the boy’s point of view.

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

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

I always wished for this, but it’s almost turning into more of a nightmare than a dream.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

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

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

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

There is a rollicking kindness that looks like malice.

Hatred is inveterate anger.

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

If it’s hard to remember, it’ll be difficult to forget.

Some men do think I’m a psycho bunny-boiler.

I think Buddhism should open the door of psychology and healing to penetrate more easily into the Western world.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

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.

If one plays good music, people don’t listen and if one plays bad music people don’t talk.

A true artist is expected to be all that is noble-minded, and this is not altogether a mistake; on the other hand, however, in what a mean way are critics allowed to pounce upon us.

The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.

Society has always to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.

Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.

Oh my God – this is scary and sad all at the same time. I literally dream about buying my own groceries. Swear to God. Because it is something that is real and normal.

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

Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.

Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.

Ritual is another word for fear, manifested in a different way.

A person’s fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.

I met Howard Zinn in 1961, my first year at Spelman College in Atlanta. He was the tall, rangy, good-looking professor that many of the girls at Spelman swooned over.

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

Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories – and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories.

It sometimes feels like a strange movie, you know, it’s all so weird that sometimes I wonder if it is really happening.

I have to be seen to be believed.

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

I don’t think the Christian Right dominates America in the way some in the media believe they do.

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.