There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.

The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.

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

A cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see, because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet.

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

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

It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.

In a magazine, one can get – from cover to cover – 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

The word ‚belief‘ is a difficult thing for me. I don’t believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it – I don’t need to believe it.

When the solution is simple, God is answering.

The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.

If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.

Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.

As a single withered tree, if set aflame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does a rascal son destroy a whole family.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.

My grandfather was smart and had a whole lot of pride. He didn’t speak a terrible amount, but you could tell there was a ton on his mind – like a quiet acceptance of how life had turned out.

It’s not an experiment if you know it’s going to work.

Let’s not burn the universities yet. After all, the damage they do might be worse.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?

Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.

The only real valuable thing is intuition.

That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned.

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

Be smarter than other people, just don’t tell them so.

No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before.

Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.

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

I’m as skeptical as anyone would be about celebrities and causes – and I will dare to say to you that I don’t think of myself as a celebrity per se.

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

The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

I really don’t believe in magic.

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

I know that the arts are important. I’m not denying that, but I can’t associate myself with all the claptrap that goes on around it.

When one has finished building one’s house, one suddenly realizes that in the process one has learned something that one really needed to know in the worst way – before one began.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

Every step of life shows much caution is required.

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.

The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.