What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

It cannot be said often enough that science fiction as a genre is incredibly educational – and I’m speaking the written science fiction, not ‚Star Trek.‘ Science fiction writers tend to fill their books if they’re clever with little bits of interesting stuff and real stuff.

My company survives because I’ve learned to respect the ideas of people younger than me and recognize when my wisdom is obsolete.

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

Whatever that means, however you got on that mountain, why not try to climb it? And do it in your own way.

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

There is no such thing as Something for nothing.

You cannot open a book without learning something.

I think as long as I do a good job and put in all my effort to proving that I’m worth it, then everything should be fine.

I don’t think I will ever be content. I am somebody who is always hungry.

I was terrible in English. I couldn’t stand the subject. It seemed to me ridiculous to worry about whether you spelled something wrong or not, because English spelling is just a human convention – it has nothing to do with anything real, anything from nature.

There’s definitely going to be things that I’m not very good at, things I can improve.

I’m going to use all my tools, my God-given ability, and make the best life I can with it.

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.

I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.

To not to have entirely wasted one’s life seems to be a worthy accomplishment, if only for myself.

All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.

Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness.

You cannot push any one up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself.

We spend our lives, all of us, waiting for the great day, the great battle, or the deed of power. But that external consummation is not given to many: nor is it necessary. So long as our being is tensed, directed with passion, towards that which is the spirit of all things, then that spirit will emerge from our own hidden, nameless effort.

Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.

The more nobly a man wills and acts, the more avid he becomes for great and sublime aims to pursue. He will no longer be content with family, country, and the remunerative aspect of his work. He will want wider organisations to create, new paths to blaze, causes to uphold, truths to discover, an ideal to cherish and defend.

Surely our job while we’re here on Earth is to learn about the world, not to create parallel universes.

There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

Your Highest Self is not just an idea that sounds lofty and spiritual. It is a way of being. It is the very first principle that you must come to understand and embrace as you move toward attracting to you that which you want and need for this parenthesis in eternity that you know as your life.

Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

Common sense is not so common.

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

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.

Nothing I can say or devise, and nothing anybody else can say or devise, is going to be perfect.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

There are a lot of ‚chicken Christians.‘ Chickens are generally afraid of life, and they seldom fly or reach their potential in life. And when a storm comes, all they seem to do is flap around the chicken yard, stirring up dirt and running to the chicken house.

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

You have to feel confident. If you don’t, then you’re going to be hesitant and defensive, and there’ll be a lot of things working against you.

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

Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.

I don’t mind saying, you know, that I don’t take a salary from the church, and God has blessed me with more money than I could imagine from my books.

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.

It seems the older you get, the more life comes into focus.

Learning never exhausts the mind.

Besides entertainment and action, I want to educate. You know, as a producer or director, we do have a responsibility to society.

Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.

I love getting out of my comfort zone.

Take care to sell your horse before he dies. The art of life is passing losses on.

I’m married. My wife, Stella – a beautiful woman. She’s brought a lot of peace to my life, a lot of wisdom.

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

‚Lives‘ is one of those books I should really have written when I was younger. It is the classic childhood, adolescence, breakthrough-into-maturity book. Every beginning writer has that material – and after that, you’re not sure what you can do.

Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.

Everything I learned I learned from the movies.

When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.