Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.

Without stirring abroad, One can know the whole world; Without looking out of the window One can see the way of heaven. The further one goes The less one knows.

On a spiritual level, it’s as though with my sighted eye I see what’s before me, and with my unsighted eye I see what’s hidden. It’s illuminated life more than darkened it.

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.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

I know now that there is no one thing that is true – it is all true.

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

I’ve made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I’m convinced of the opposite.

I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

The worst men often give the best advice.

We cannot learn men from books.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.

It is impossible to experience one’s death objectively and still carry a tune.

It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.

People who think you could wave a magic wand and the legacy of the past will be over are blind.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

As a blind man has no idea of colors, so have we no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things.

When you’re doing a film and the majority of the film is cast black, for me, it’s most important to get people to view those movies as just movies, as just good movies. At the end of the day, regardless of the color of the cast, we’re all doing the same thing in this business: trying to make a good film.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

Science is not everything, but science is very beautiful.

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.

You know, people talk about this being an uncertain time. You know, all time is uncertain. I mean, it was uncertain back in – in 2007, we just didn’t know it was uncertain. It was – uncertain on September 10th, 2001. It was uncertain on October 18th, 1987, you just didn’t know it.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

As long as the people don’t fear the truth, there is hope. For once they fear it, the one who tells it doesn’t stand a chance. And today, truth is still beautiful… but so frightening.

See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

Cunning… is but the low mimic of wisdom.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract; or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.

I think that there is never an indispensable leader, you know? I think that there is a time with dignity that one needs to leave.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.

Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.

Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.

Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.

The real truths of life are never entirely new to you or to anybody because there is a level deep down within you where you already know all the things, all those spiritual truths that you read or hear, and then recognize them. I say ‚recognize‘ because you’re not… it’s not new.