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

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

Philosophy: Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

How far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?

What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.

Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice… that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.

Our Creator expects His children everywhere to educate themselves.

Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

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

The first step in a person’s salvation is knowledge of their sin.

Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

I’m super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I’m critical of other people, too – I try not to be, though.

Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.

Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence.

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.

What really raises one’s indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the senselessness of suffering.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.

I don’t join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn’t have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying child in Heaven – that’s none of my business, ultimately. I won’t lecture her on the philosophy of science.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your ass.

And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren’t any other people living in the world.

Honor thy error as a hidden intention.

What you are comes to you.

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.

If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it’s the restaurant business.

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.

He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Be the chief but never the lord.

The lie is a condition of life.

I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.

A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.

That’s what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure one fool tells him he’s wise.

When you look at the sun during your walking meditation, the mindfulness of the body helps you to see that the sun is in you; without the sun there is no life at all and suddenly you get in touch with the sun in a different way.

Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.

The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

I have just got a new theory of eternity.

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

It’s the philosophies of being an athlete that carry me today.

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.

I’m too busy acting like I’m not Naive. I’ve seen it all, I was here first.

Being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical.

The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.

He who gives away shall have real gain. He who subdues himself shall be free; he shall cease to be a slave of passions. The righteous man casts off evil, and by rooting out lust, bitterness, and illusion do we reach Nirvana.

We are all at times unconscious prophets.

The stories are not autobiographical, but they’re personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I’ve learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.