There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

I think you could ask 10 English people the same question about class and get a very different answer.

It is the heart always that sees, before the head can see.

Women are the engine driving the growth in California’s economy. Women make California’s economy unique.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

You cannot open a book without learning something.

I do have a lot of gays in my family now, but some will never come out.

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find any foot-hold. It is a fact that we are suffering from nihilism.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; the Named is the mother of all things.

The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.

Experience which was once claimed by the aged is now claimed exclusively by the young.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

I got a fancy reputation. During high school, every puzzle that was known to man must have come to me. Every damn, crazy conundrum that people had invented, I knew.

You can always tell when a man’s well informed. His views are pretty much like your own.

Age doesn’t bother me. So many of my heroes were older guys. It’s the lack of years left that weighs far heavier on me than the age that I am.

My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‚blackness‘ than ever before. I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.

We cannot learn men from books.

We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old – and that’s the criterion by which I’ll be selecting my judges.

Religion is compulsory in English schools, you know.

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.

Experience is the teacher of all things.

Apple has given me a platform to spread music. They’re giving us Latinos a chance to shine.

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

There are folks who now know black families – like the Johnsons on ‚Black-ish‘ or the folks on ‚Modern Family.‘ They become part of who you are. You share their pains. You understand their fears. They make you laugh, and they change how you see the world.

You know, my Grandpop Finnegan used to have an expression: he used to say, ‚Joey, the guy in Olyphant’s out of work, it’s an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law’s out of work, it’s a recession. When you’re out of work, it’s a depression.‘

We are wiser than we know.

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

Maybe every city has a unique sensibility, but we don’t have names for what they are or haven’t identified them all. We can’t pinpoint exactly what makes each city’s people unique yet.

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.

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

Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

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

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.

They know enough who know how to learn.

I am not young enough to know everything.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.

I just think overall there’s not as many female ministers than there are male ministers.

I’m not focused on the gay and lesbian movement.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

Too much of what is called ‚education‘ is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.

I know love is the answer.

I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that. But everyone else is kind of, with their calculating – is this the exact right mix? I think that’s – to me it’s anti-comedy. It’s more about PC-nonsense.

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.

Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.

Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all.

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.