We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

I got a fancy reputation. During high school, every puzzle that was known to man must have come to me. Every damn, crazy conundrum that people had invented, I knew.

The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.

If we don’t plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And you don’t have to be, you know, a brilliant biochemist and you don’t have to have an IQ of 150. Just common sense tells you to be kind, ninny, fool. Be kind.

If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.

Whatever is well said by another, is mine.

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

I owe my solitude to other people.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

If you wished to be loved, love.

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.

Knowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom.

We humans are self-absorbed by nature, and spend most of our time focusing inwardly on our emotions, on our wounds, on our fantasies.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

The proper study of mankind is books.

Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.

If you can’t read, the only thing you can do is enjoy the pictures, not the whole story. Reading is the key to knowledge. Knowledge is the key to understanding. So read on, young man! Read on, young lady!

A witty saying proves nothing.

We have no right to express an opinion until we know all of the answers.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them.

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

Libraries raised me.

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.

We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

Who would set a limit to the mind of man? Who would dare assert that we know all there is to be known?

No man was ever wise by chance.

‚Kiss Land‘ wasn’t about what people wanted to hear on the radio. It was the state of mind I was in – introverted, like David Cronenberg’s ‚Naked Lunch.‘ You didn’t know if you were hearing a chorus or a verse. It was just my thoughts.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

Many admire, few know.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

My old drama coach used to say, ‚Don’t just do something, stand there.‘ Gary Cooper wasn’t afraid to do nothing.

Peace if possible, truth at all costs.

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.

I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

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

Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.

I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

Necessity dispenseth with decorum.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.