Theories are always very thin and insubstantial, experience only is tangible.

Atoms are very special: they like certain particular partners, certain particular directions, and so on. It is the job of physics to analyze why each one wants what it wants.

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

History, a distillation of rumour.

It amazes me sometimes that even intelligent people will analyze a situation or make a judgement after only recognizing the standard or traditional structure of a piece.

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

It put our energies to sleep and made visionaries of us – dreamers and indolent… It is good to begin life poor; it is good to begin life rich – these are wholesome; but to begin it prospectively rich! The man who has not experienced it cannot imagine the curse of it.

The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry.

To ‚choose‘ dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid.

Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.

Stupidity is a talent for misconception.

I’ve actually taken companies public, I’ve actually busted companies, I’ve actually gone broke.

But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.

It’s not simply to say, ‚My colleagues are wrong, and I would do it this way,‘ but the greatest dissents do become court opinions.

Eight years involved with the nuclear industry have taught me that when nothing can possible go wrong and every avenue has been covered, then is the time to buy a house on the next continent.

Forty to 60 I would say is your prime. That’s when you know the most, you’ve seen the most, you understand the most, and you still have some physical energy.

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.

That the divided but contiguous particles of bodies may be separated from one another is a matter of observation; and, in the particles that remain undivided, our minds are able to distinguish yet lesser parts, as is mathematically demonstrated.

There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.

I’ll die a crazy old man!

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

I’m not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose… it’ll be much harder to detect.

Humor is the most engaging cowardice.

Certainly, if you look at human behavior around the world, you have to admit that we can be very aggressive.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.

Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

The reactionary is always willing to take a progressive attitude on any issue that is dead.

Working with J Balvin has undoubtedly been an unparalleled experience.

I have a memory, and I can just eliminate mistakes when they come up because I’ve already made them.

When I did A Soldier’s Story, I was very young and green and thought I knew everything-now I know I know everything!

The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

I probably hold the distinction of being one movie star who, by all laws of logic, should never have made it. At each stage of my career, I lacked the experience.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.

I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect – in terror.

States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.

We are often raised as dependents then given over to teachers. It’s experience and exploration that can transform us and lead to mastery.

My music definitely comes from a place of experience. Everything connects to a truth.

When you’re older you want to learn from other people.

I’m too busy acting like I’m not Naive. I’ve seen it all, I was here first.

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

War is so complex; human nature is so complex. There’s no filmmaker who has ever figured it out perfectly.

Study men, not historians.

Two things control men’s nature, instinct and experience.

The human brain is an incredible pattern-matching machine.

The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

Because of my wrestling background, nothing a director can throw at me on a set can faze me.

Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off. In this respect my travels were very useful to me.

What we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt.

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.

I need more sex, OK? Before I die I wanna taste everyone in the world.

Adventure is worthwhile in itself.

The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken.

The responsibility of a writer is to excavate the experience of the people who produced him.

I’m sure I’ve changed my mind about something. Inevitably, when we grow up – as we get more experience and wiser. Well, I’ve changed my mind about some food that I didn’t like when I was young.

I want to – more than anything – to create a moment that people will never forget. Not for me, but for themselves. That’s what I remember about great Super Bowl performances in the past, when you really get lost in the moment with your family.

I’ve been to those places where it’s ‚poor, pitiful me.‘

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.‘