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

It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.

We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

I’d like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don’t have misconceptions – they understand. I believe that.

If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.

Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish – too much handling will spoil it.

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

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

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

Lord keep us all from sin. Teach us how to walk circumspectly; enable us to guard our minds against error of doctrine, our hearts against wrong feelings, and our lives against evil actions.

Education is the best provision for old age.

Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.

Many people find the universe confusing – it’s not.

The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely – the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears – when you give your whole attention to it.

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

Experience which was once claimed by the aged is now claimed exclusively by the young.

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

A lie cannot live.

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.

Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

The earth is supported by the power of truth; it is the power of truth that makes the sun shine and the winds blow; indeed all things rest upon truth.

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation.

Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.

It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.

Gravitation is, so far, not understandable in terms of other phenomena.

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

Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.

I would fain grow old learning many things.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.

I don’t think culture is something you can describe.

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.

I’ll die a crazy old man!

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

I don’t hate women – they just sometimes make me mad.

In whatever adulation you get, there’s truth and there’s not truth. And wherever they dog you, and they say it was horrible – there’s truth and there’s not truth. It’s human nature to like to read the adulation more.

To be social is to be forgiving.

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.

If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.