Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.

I’m not looking to get away from anything. I like what I’ve done. I like what I get to do and I enjoy working with my friends. I loved those movies, but this is incredible.

But blind to former as to future fate, what mortal knows his pre-existent state?

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

There is only a finger’s difference between a wise man and a fool.

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

We call first truths those we discover after all the others.

I try to see the good in everybody, and I don’t care who people are as long as they’re themselves, whatever that is.

When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man.

There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.

Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.

The words of truth are always paradoxical.

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.

The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!

Shrinking away from death is something unhealthy and abnormal which robs the second half of life of its purpose.

I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.

Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.

All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us.

I was born on a full moon. Both my children were born on full moons, too. Some people say that’s scary. It is what it is, man, I don’t be trippin‘. I couldn’t tell God when I wanted to be born.

As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I’m successful, I never feel like I’m anywhere. The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I’m never content.

Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey’s end.

Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

This is the truth: as from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again.

Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb.

The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

I believe in the Golden Rule – The Man with the Gold… Rules.

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

I say there is no darkness but ignorance.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

What do I care about the purring of one who cannot love, like the cat?

A clever man commits no minor blunders.

Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.

I have just got a new theory of eternity.

I feel 80% of my life is completely normal.

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

Life is the childhood of our immortality.

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.