To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.

The good is the beautiful.

I don’t do things for the response or for the controversy. I just live my life.

I don’t consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.

I never even thought of myself as deadpan until someone wrote an article about me about a year after I was doing comedy. There was a paper called the ‚Boston Phoenix,‘ and someone wrote a description of what I was doing and that’s where I first saw ‚deadpan.‘

I am absolutely my own biggest critic.

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

I learned a great many years ago that in a fight between husband and wife, a third party should never get between the woman’s skillet and the man’s ax-helve.

God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: ‚This is my country.‘

The man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.

When you give, it comes back to you.

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.

The first book I ever really read was Plato’s ‚Republic,‘ and then I had to go over that five times or something.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

Nature is not human hearted.

Good men by nature, wish to know. I know that many will call this useless work… men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind.

We must accept what science tells us, that man was born from the earth. But, more logical than the scientists who lecture us, we must carry this lesson to its conclusion: that is to say, accept that man was born entirely from the world – not only his flesh and bones but his incredible power of thought.

You might not have the things you want, but if you check carefully, you got all you need.

The more that learn to read the less learn how to make a living. That’s one thing about a little education. It spoils you for actual work. The more you know the more you think somebody owes you a living.

If I had only one sermon to preach it would be a sermon against pride.

At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.

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

I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.

Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it’s just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip.

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.

Why are we here? Where do we come from? Traditionally, these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead.

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

We cannot wish for that we know not.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

You stay teachable most by reading books. By reading what other people went through.

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.

When you learn about the teaching and the practice of another tradition, you always have a chance to understand your own teaching and practice.

He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.

Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.

Justice… is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

He that sows thorns should never go barefoot.

We feel and know that we are eternal.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

To suffer the penalty of too much haste, which is too little speed.

One thing is certain in business. You and everyone around you will make mistakes.

History should be written as philosophy.

Touch a scientist and you touch a child.

Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars – mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?

I learned to fly a few years ago in England. It’s the only place I’m completely alone – up in the air, detached from everything.

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

There is no birth of consciousness without pain.

Why does your mind conform? Have you ever asked? Are you aware that you are conforming to a pattern? It doesn’t matter what that pattern is, whether you have established a pattern for yourself or it has been established for you.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

The ‚soul‘ is one of the words you can use to talk about your innermost being, the essence of who you are.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.