The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible.

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

War does not determine who is right – only who is left.

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.

Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.

Comedians are sociologists. We’re pointing out stuff that the general public doesn’t even stop to think about, looking at life in slow-motion and questioning everything we see.

The long time to come when I shall not exist has more effect on me than this short present time, which nevertheless seems endless.

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it… Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

Watch out for the joy-stealers: gossip, criticism, complaining, faultfinding, and a negative, judgmental attitude.

I have this really high priority on happiness and finding something to be happy about.

When one travels around the world, one notices to what an extraordinary degree human nature is the same, whether in India or America, in Europe or Australia.

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

Gays are some of the nicest, kindest, most loving people in the world.

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

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

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

I’ve been called a moron since I was about four. My father called me a moron. My grandfather said I was a moron. And a lot of times when I’m driving, I hear I’m a moron. I like being a moron.

Always say ‚yes‘ to the present moment… Surrender to what is. Say ‚yes‘ to life – and see how life starts suddenly to start working for you rather than against you.

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

You are not a problem that needs solving.

We live in ugly times.

People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.

Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

When you go to war as a boy, you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed, not you… Then, when you are badly wounded the first time, you lose that illusion, and you know it can happen to you.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

Tears of joy are like the summer rain drops pierced by sunbeams.

Whether or not I like a piece of data has very little bearing on whether or not I am likely to accept it.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

To like an individual because he’s black is just as insulting as to dislike him because he isn’t white.

God is not upset that Gandhi was not a Christian, because God is not a Christian! All of God’s children and their different faiths help us to realize the immensity of God.

Most people want security in this world, not liberty.

There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.

Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

I have no doubt that Russia will and should remain a major source of energy supplies for Europe and the world.

Our experience of any painting is always the latest line in a long conversation we’ve been having with painting. There’s no way of looking at art as though you hadn’t seen art before.

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

Game’s always been open arms with me.

Confidence, as a teenager? Because I knew what I loved. I loved to read; I loved to listen to music; and I loved cats. Those three things. So, even though I was an only kid, I could be happy because I knew what I loved.

If I went back to my 20-year-old self, what I would tell my 20-year-old self is, ‚You don’t know anything.‘ Because everyone, when they’re young, they think they know what’s going on in the world, and you don’t.

If we are to be happy, we must first react against our tendency to follow the line of least resistance, a tendency that causes us either to remain as we are, or to look primarily to activities external to ourselves for what will provide new impetus to our lives.

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.

If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different.

When I was a child I asked my mother what homosexuality was about and she said – and this was 100 years ago in Germany and she was very open-minded – ‚It’s like hair color. It’s nothing. Some people are blond and some people have dark hair. It’s not a subject.‘ This was a very healthy attitude.

I’ve never been a jealous person, and I’ve never felt built up by someone else’s failure – that’s a cheap thrill.

There is always another way to say the same thing that doesn’t look at all like the way you said it before. I don’t know what the reason for this is. I think it is somehow a representation of the simplicity of nature.

While there’s life, there’s hope.

There are some loony people in this world!

My father probably thought the capital of the world was wherever he was at the time. It couldn’t possibly be anyplace else. Where he and his wife were in their own home, that, for them, was the capital of the world.

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.

I’m a woman, and anytime you tell a woman that she looks nice, it’s not going to upset her.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.