The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

There is not a truth existing which I fear… or would wish unknown to the whole world.

I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

Cunning… is but the low mimic of wisdom.

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

We ought to esteem it of the greatest importance that the fictions which children first hear should be adapted in the most perfect manner to the promotion of virtue.

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.

Don’t lie about anything, ever. Lying leads to Hell.

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can’t find.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them and threatens us. When these demands are met, the first and greatest benefit will come to Iraqi men, women and children.

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.

If we’re really honest with ourselves, most of us will admit that we want to impress people, and this is what’s causing us to do what we do.

Old age is just a record of one’s whole life.

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey’s end.

There’s something about music that encourages people to want to know more about the person that made it, and where it was recorded, what year it was done, what they were listening to, and all this kind of stuff. There’s something that invites all this obsessive behavior.

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

An intellectual is a person who’s found one thing that’s more interesting than sex.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

When I was five – it’s not even bad – I stole a sweet from the sweet shop.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment because children are innocent and need the guidance of an adult society.

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

Who would set a limit to the mind of man? Who would dare assert that we know all there is to be known?

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight.

In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.

Study the past, if you would divine the future.

On the way back from Mumbai to go meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy named Lee Kuan Yew, who most foreign policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone’s eyes.

Through the ages, many of His children have had access to the blessings of the gospel, but many more have not.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.

Actually, I didn’t start sweating until I had children.

The thing I enjoyed most were visits from children. They did not want public office.

In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don’t baptize the children of single mothers because they weren’t conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today’s hypocrites. Those who clericalize the church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation.

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.

I don’t mind telling a dark side.

There is no sin except stupidity.

There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.

Occasionally I’ve seen children become heavy-handed and insensitive when dealing with their aging parents, and it only caused resentment and hard feelings.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.

All things considered, there’s nobody better for children than parents.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.