There is no such thing as Something for nothing.

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Who is the wise man? He who sees what’s going to be born.

It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me.

A lot of truth is said in jest.

The spirit of an age may be best expressed in the abstract ideal arts, for the spirit itself is abstract and ideal.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.

I worked my face off.

He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.

For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.

I never give advice unless someone asks me for it. One thing I’ve learned, and possibly the only advice I have to give, is to not be that person giving out unsolicited advice based on your own personal experience.

Who, being loved, is poor?

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

Your philosophy determines whether you will go for the disciplines or continue the errors.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one’s being added to that being.

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

We do not learn; and what we call learning is only a process of recollection.

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

Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.

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

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

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

I work very hard, but when God opens that door for you – when life opens that door for you, I should say – I think it’s important to be giving, to return the love back.

We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.

Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point.

The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

I think the materialist conception of history is valid.

Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.

A lot of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into this career of mine.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

Ask an older person you respect to tell you his or her greatest regret.

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

It’s the philosophies of being an athlete that carry me today.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.