There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.

Good is positive. Evil is merely privative, not absolute: it is like cold, which is the privation of heat. All evil is so much death or nonentity. Benevolence is absolute and real. So much benevolence as a man hath, so much life hath he.

Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.

Can the mind see the truth of its own incapacity to know the unknown? Surely if I see very clearly that my mind cannot know the unknown, there is absolute quietness.

Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.

Even when folks are hitting you over the head, you can’t stop marching. Even when they’re turning the hoses on you, you can’t stop.

Platitudes? Yes, there are platitudes. Platitudes are there because they are true.

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‚I’m with you kid. Let’s go.‘

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

I don’t argue when people say that my message is simple, but I believe Jesus‘ message was simple. Jesus didn’t go around condemning people.

Life in general has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government.

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined – to strengthen each other – to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

My mom, she was a very, very soft woman. It was hard for her to yell or even curse. But when it came to fighting for her kids, she found a strength she didn’t always know she had.

Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.

For victory in life, we’ve got to keep focused on the goal, and the goal is Heaven.

Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone – a memory.

The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.

Life is an ordeal, albeit an exciting one, but I wouldn’t trade it for the good old days of poverty and obscurity.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.

The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right.

You’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.

Many people are alive but don’t touch the miracle of being alive.

Critics only make you stronger. You have to look at what they are saying as feedback. Sometimes the feedback helps, and other times, it’s just noise that can be a distraction.

Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none.

Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

Indeed, we’re strongest when the face of America isn’t only a soldier carrying a gun but also a diplomat negotiating peace, a Peace Corps volunteer bringing clean water to a village, or a relief worker stepping off a cargo plane as floodwaters rise.

Children make your life important.

Just as courage is the danger of life, so is fear its safeguard.

Our diversity is our strength. What a dull and pointless life it would be if everyone was the same.

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.

As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know that the men and women of our intelligence community put their lives on the line every day, and they do very dangerous work to keep our country safe.

Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.

Elegance is refusal.

The American people are so much stronger, so much more resolved than any enemy can fully understand.

Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

Art’s everything we hope life would be, a lot of times.

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.

Life’s a bit like mountaineering – never look down.

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

Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice; but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death.

Let’s be very clear: Strong men – men who are truly role models – don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.

Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond.

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

Death is the king of this world: ‚Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet.

I am sorry to think that you do not get a man’s most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.

The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.

That’s another hallmark of truth, is that it snaps things together. People write to me all the time and say it’s as if things were coming together in my mind. It’s like the Platonic idea that all learning was remembering. You have a nature, and when you feel that nature articulated, it’s it’s like the act of snapping the puzzle pieces together.

I’m half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times.

I never woke up and thought, ‚I really want to live a bold life.‘

There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.

To me, comedy is just twisting reality. It’s commenting or observing or twisting life.