True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.

Ours is a nation of laws: of citizens who live under them and for the citizens who enforce them. So, to a community in Ferguson that is rightly hurting and looking for answers, let me call once again for us to seek some understanding rather than simply holler at each other. Let’s seek to heal rather than to wound each other.

The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn’t a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it.

I like gaps; all my stories have gaps. It seems this is the way people’s lives present themselves.

I believe life is an intelligent thing: that things aren’t random.

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.

The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master.

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

The more in harmony with yourself you are, the more joyful you are and the more faithful you are. Faith is not to disconnect you from reality – it connects you to reality.

The self is hateful.

There’s no way to remove the observer – us – from our perceptions of the world.

What a terrible thing to have lost one’s mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is.

There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.

Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.

Each day we understand better what the Indians say, and they us, so that very often we are intelligible to each other.

I let the dog out, or I let him in, and we talk some. I let him know I like him, and he lets me know he likes me.

Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.

Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own.

The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don’t know nothing. I mean, that’s my life lesson.

Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.

The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one’s self.

Baseball is a universe as large as life itself, and therefore all things in life, whether good or bad, whether tragic or comic, fall within its domain.

Our brains are either our greatest assets or our greatest liabilities.

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and… the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

Common sense is not so common.

We cannot learn men from books.

Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything.

A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

My overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be.

I have trouble with letting go. That’s my problem.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

The cautious seldom err.

It is not well to make great changes in old age.

The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.

Part of what confuses people in times of upheaval is that you’re getting so many different points of view and directions and so and so, how to do this and do that. And a lot of it is written in a language that honestly most people cannot understand.

His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.

Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.

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

We’re in very bad trouble if we don’t understand the planet we’re trying to save.

Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.

One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.

I’m not actually a very keen performer. I like putting shows together. I like putting events together. In fact, everything I do is about the conceptualizing and realization of a piece of work, whether it’s the recording or the performance side.