There is so much that people take for granted.

Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

It takes a long time to bring the past up to the present.

When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

Giving is true having.

We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.

Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.

When I’m a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It’s somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

When I was a boy we didn’t wake up with Vietnam and have Cyprus for lunch and the Congo for dinner.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

It put our energies to sleep and made visionaries of us – dreamers and indolent… It is good to begin life poor; it is good to begin life rich – these are wholesome; but to begin it prospectively rich! The man who has not experienced it cannot imagine the curse of it.

And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.

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.

To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

Do everything as in the eye of another.

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it’s like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can’t really speak on it, because I wasn’t there. I don’t feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.

It’s been wonderful for me, and I feel so privileged to have fans that are that loyal.

Sin is geographical.

It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.

When I was 18, I thought that, to be a romantic, you couldn’t live past 30.

Kindnesses are easily forgotten; but injuries! what worthy man does not keep those in mind?

As I’ve said, there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it. And all of us are united in appreciation for our servicemen and women, and our hopes for Iraqis‘ future.

I think the tiniest little thing can change the course of your day, which can change the course of your year, which can change who you are.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim.

Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

I just make good movies. That’s the way I thank my fans.

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not – silence is the sharper sword.

Wonder is the basis of worship.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.

Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

I really don’t pay attention to the outside world when I’m incarcerated, because being in prison is like being in a different world. So I don’t pay attention to what’s going on outside of jail, because it’s all beyond my control.

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

God can cause opportunity to find you. He has unexpected blessings where you suddenly meet the right person, or suddenly your health improves, or suddenly you’re able to pay off your house. That’s God shifting things in your favor.

The things hardest to bear are sweetest to remember.

Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.

I’ve made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I’m convinced of the opposite.

Mortality is very different when you’re 20 to when you’re 50.

Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.

I’m an atheist and I thank God for it.

The difference is too nice – Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.

If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is.

Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.

Pay attention, don’t let life go by you. Fall in love with the back of your cereal box.