Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.

I was so rude when I was a little girl.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

Common sense is the genius of humanity.

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.

The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?

Never pray for justice, because you might get some.

A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.

His priority did not seem to be to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even… knowledge, was foolproof.

All nature is but art unknown to thee.

There is no wealth but life.

All fiction is about people, unless it’s about rabbits pretending to be people. It’s all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that’s what we call ‚the plot‘.

A lie cannot live.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

Where the Mind is biggest, the Heart, the Senses, Magnanimity, Charity, Tolerance, Kindliness, and the rest of them scarcely have room to breathe.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values – that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

Thinking fragments reality – it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

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

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‚try to be a little kinder.‘

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

There is no such thing as Something for nothing.

Thirty was so strange for me. I’ve really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.

It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.

Throughout my years in business, I discovered something. I would always ask why you do things. The answers that I would invariably get are: ‚Oh, that’s just the way things are done around here.‘ Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks very deeply about things in business.

I think the brain is essentially a computer and consciousness is like a computer program. It will cease to run when the computer is turned off. Theoretically, it could be re-created on a neural network, but that would be very difficult, as it would require all one’s memories.

I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.

I believe in believing. My coach John Kavanagh is a big atheist, and he is always trying to persuade people to his way of thinking, and I think, ‚What a waste of energy.‘ If people want to believe in this god or that god, that’s fine by me; believe away. But I think we can be our own gods. I believe in myself.

Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow.

One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.

My theory is 98 percent of all human endeavor is killing time.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

God has already done everything He’s going to do. The ball is now in your court. If you want success, if you want wisdom, if you want to be prosperous and healthy, you’re going to have to do more than meditate and believe; you must boldly declare words of faith and victory over yourself and your family.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.

Meditation is not to avoid society; it is to look deep to have the kind of insight you need to take action. To think that it is just to sit down and enjoy the calm and peace, is wrong.

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.

Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.