The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.

If I ever felt like I was getting lost in the hurricane that was storming around Nirvana, I’d just go back to Virginia.

Despair is the conclusion of fools.

I seldom think of politics more than eighteen hours a day.

The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.

My roommate got a pet elephant. Then it got lost. It’s in the apartment somewhere.

As soon as you have a language that has a past tense and a future tense you’re going to say, ‚Where did we come from, what happens next?‘ The ability to remember the past helps us plan the future.

Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.

Waste brings woe, and sorrow hates despair.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

At ev’ry word a reputation dies.

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.

Now I realize that from ’72 through to about ’76, I was the ultimate rock star. I couldn’t have been more rock star.

I think there is a sense of being forced at this time to look at America’s really large shadow and that’s not all that bad.

Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.

When I write about a 15-year old, I jump, I return to the days when I was that age. It’s like a time machine. I can remember everything. I can feel the wind. I can smell the air. Very actually. Very vividly.

The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must therefore be treated with great caution.

I do sometimes look back at things I’ve written in the past, and think, ‚I just don’t remember being the person who wrote that.‘

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.

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

I have explained the phenomena of the heavens and of our sea by the force of gravity, but I have not yet assigned a cause to gravity.

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.

The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

If you’re not going to be rewarded for your virtues, and instead you’re going to be punished for them, then what’s your motivation to continue?

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.

Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?

The astronomer will believe that the most erratic comet will yet accomplish its journey and revisit our sphere; but we give up those for lost who have not wandered one-half the distance from the centre of light and life.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.

Every man’s memory is his private literature.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man’s virtues the means of deceiving him.

There have been times that I’ve wept as I’ve gone from city to city and I’ve seen how far people have wandered from God.

My mum passing away wasn’t funny, but that funeral and what I went through, the things that happened, looking back at it, there were funny moments. You have to be strong enough to look back at it, to sit and assess the situation.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

This isn’t life in the fast lane, it’s life in the oncoming traffic.

When we recognise the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is born in us, some kind of connection, love is born.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.

I was so rude when I was a little girl.

There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

Sweet is the memory of past troubles.

Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.

It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing, but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

Few men would dare to read their own autobiography if all their deeds were recorded in it; few can look back upon their entire career without a blush.

I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.

Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.

There’s a deceptive sin that can keep us from walking in love: pride. It’s deceptive because when you have pride, you’re usually too proud to admit it. I know this because I used to have teachings on pride and they didn’t sell well.

I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

Who would ever think that so much went on in the soul of a young girl?

No memory of having starred atones for later disregard, or keeps the end from being hard.

The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.

History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right.