There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.

Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don’t let yourself believe it will happen to you.

Some folks believe that hardship breeds artistic creativity. I don’t buy it. One can put up with poverty for a while when one is young, but it will inevitably wear a person down.

I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws.

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

When we trust God more than our feelings, it confuses the devil. I mean, when he throws you his best shot and he can’t budge you from believing God, he won’t know what to do with you anymore.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world.

Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

Keep in mind that no matter how perfectly you get your life in order, you will never be rid of all your problems. Problems are a way of life, always have been, always will be. But how you elect to view those problems is all up to you.

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

To a profound pessimist about life, being in danger is not depressing.

I believe that when you think of the negative, and you get up discouraged – ‚There’s nothing good in my future‘ – I really believe it almost ties the hands of God. God works where there’s an attitude of faith. I believe faith is all about hope.

‚I wish life was not so short,‘ he thought. ‚Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.‘

One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.

Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.

I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned… a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.

I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord’s side.

The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of posterity.

You are the universe, you aren’t in the universe.

People invest in businesses that they believe have the leadership, mission and team to grow and operate profitably.

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

In the fight between you and the world, back the world.

Religion is the opium of the masses.

It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you have or don’t have, what you lack, or what you have too much of. But all you need to have is faith in God, an undying passion for what you do and what you choose to do in this life, and a relentless drive and the will to do whatever it takes to be successful in whatever you put your mind to.

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

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

Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.

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

When you’re young, you’re not afraid of what comes next. You’re excited by it.

By its birth, and for all time, Christianity is pledged to the Cross and dominated by the sign of the Cross. It cannot remain its own self except by identifying itself ever more intensely with the essence of the Cross.

I’d rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.

Some men see things as they are, and say why. I dream of things that never were, and say why not.

Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

Although the life of a person is in a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.

From my perspective, I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That’s what I believe, and it was very, very strong in the forest.

It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.

Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

Have you ever thought how humiliating and distressing it was to be placed upon a sphere? For friendship it is a boon never to be able to be further apart than the antipodes. But suppose that you are leaving together to go on and on; it is impossible. To go beyond a certain point is to return to where you began.

No matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it.

The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less appealing as you get older. At some point in your life, your tolerance level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there’s nothing really to talk about.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.

I grew up in a very nice house in Houston, went to private school all my life and I’ve never even been to the ‚hood. Not that there’s anything wrong with the ‚hood.

Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial ‚we.‘

Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

Faith is about trusting God when you have unanswered questions.

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

‚Your Erroneous Zones’ was the book that went over the top simply because I believed in it so much.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

I believe that God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom.

Faith never makes a confession.

We’re all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by nothing.

If there really is a god, then he really looks after me.