When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.

Confront a corpse at least once. The absolute absence of life is the most disturbing and challenging confrontation you will ever have.

There are many things that happen every day that we could murmur about if we let ourselves go there. But they really aren’t worth the effort it takes to get upset and gripe about it.

I’ve watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it’s because they tend to believe all the hype that’s out there. I don’t think there’s that much hype about me.

A lot of psychological principles and even medical principles, you see them coming around to what the Bible said hundreds of years ago: a merry heart is good like a medicine.

I don’t want to get into it, but if you know someone, it doesn’t mean you agree with everything they say or they do.

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.

So let’s be honest with ourselves and not take ourselves too serious, and never condemn the other fellow for doing what we are doing every day, only in a different way.

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways – either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength. Thanks to the teachings of Buddha, I have been able to take this second way.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won’t save us any more than love did.

What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law.

I’m an idealist without illusions.

I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better that book or orator.

We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life.

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.

Don’t tell your problems to people: eighty percent don’t care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.

If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.

Both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom: the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come.

I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars; there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that.

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older.

The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.

All that I know about my life, it seems, I have learned in books.

The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

To me, if life boils down to one thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving.

What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.

I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure, Jesus Christ.

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.

Cunning… is but the low mimic of wisdom.

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

I have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career: ‚You never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.‘

I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.

A good name is rather to be chosen than riches.

Success and failure are equally disastrous.

Being ‚contented‘ ought to mean in English, as it does in French, being pleased. Being content with an attic ought not to mean being unable to move from it and resigned to living in it; it ought to mean appreciating all there is in such a position.

I was kind of secretly hoping one of my kids would go out and make a million bucks. So when they put me in a home, at least I’ll have a window with a view.

From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

For me, there are two types of people: the young and the experienced.

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

There is no hierarchy of values any more. Real progress is due mainly to human genius, and that’s rare, and usually stems from a real elite, from a hierarchy.

Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.

There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.

Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.

If everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‚Why the hell not?‘

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.