The false is nothing but an imitation of the true.

Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

A gaffe in Washington is someone telling the truth, and telling the truth has never hurt me.

The economy’s always been the engine for our national security.

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.

The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; the Named is the mother of all things.

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.

I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.

Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life.

There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation.

Such as we are made of, such we be.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.

Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.

Half a truth is better than no politics.

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

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.

Realists do not fear the results of their study.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.

We call first truths those we discover after all the others.

Tell the children the truth.

There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.

Why was I born with such contemporaries?

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

There are no facts, only interpretations.

I tell people, and it’s the truth, I could sit in my garage for a week and it won’t make me a car. And you can sit in church till your bottom is flat and that won’t make you a servant of Christ.

Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

Purity is the feminine, truth the masculine of honor.

In order to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limits that it discovers in itself – limits where minds meet, and in meeting, begin to exist.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now – always.

‚Evil men have no songs.‘ How is it that the Russians have songs?

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

As a Western, ‚The Magnificent Seven‘ was a pretty good film. I don’t think it was as interesting or as multi-faceted as ‚Seven Samurai.‘

Half a truth is often a great lie.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.

Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.

The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.

Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

Biography lends to death a new terror.

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.