The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.

The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.

Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

The chimpanzee study was – well, it’s still going on, and I think it’s taught us perhaps more than anything else to be a little humble; that we are, indeed, unique primates, we humans, but we’re simply not as different from the rest of the animal kingdom as we used to think.

Do not rebuke mockers, or they will hate you; rebuke the wise, and they will love you.

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

I am a part of everything that I have read.

I’ll die a crazy old man!

Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.

I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star.

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. ‚Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you.

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.

Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.

I’ve never professed to be anything but an average student.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

The ‚I think‘ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‚I breathe‘ which actually does accompany them.

Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.

To attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world.

It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God – but to create him.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.

All our actions, as well as our thoughts and words, should praise Him who always blesses us.

An overflow of good converts to bad.

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.

Let him that is without stone among you cast the first thing he can lay his hands on.

Working with our military community has been the biggest honor of my life.

Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Change alone is unchanging.

The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.

Surely wisdom will come as we listen to learn from children, parents, partners, neighbors, Church leaders, and the Lord.

Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.

The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.

Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.

It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.

Basically, at the very bottom of life, which seduces us all, there is only absurdity, and more absurdity. And maybe that’s what gives us our joy for living, because the only thing that can defeat absurdity is lucidity.

I wouldn’t say that I am one of the greatest dancers, but I am really quite good at what I do.

You’ve all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means to this country. He is the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character – one of the finest presidents we have ever had.

Non-violence is the article of faith.

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.

I’m sorry my existence is not very noble or sublime.

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.

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

The real truths of life are never entirely new to you or to anybody because there is a level deep down within you where you already know all the things, all those spiritual truths that you read or hear, and then recognize them. I say ‚recognize‘ because you’re not… it’s not new.

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.

Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.

I feel a distaste for hunting, first because of a kind of Buddhist respect for the unity and sacredness of all life, and also because the pursuit of a hare or chamois strikes me as a kind of ‚escape of energy,‘ that is, the expenditure of our effort in an illusory end, one devoid of profit.

Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.

I don’t believe in an outside agent that creates the world, then walks away. But I feel very strongly there is an intelligence at work in every flower, in every blade of grass, in every cell of my body. And it is that intelligence that, I wouldn’t say created the universe. It is creating the universe. It’s an ongoing process.

Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness… and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.