Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

You have to just make the choices you make in life. I made the choices I made because I believed they were right for me.

To be loved is very demoralizing.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

Despair is the conclusion of fools.

On the way back from Mumbai to go meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy named Lee Kuan Yew, who most foreign policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.

I really have no interest in myself.

Falsehood is a perennial spring.

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

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.

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

Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.

Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.

I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.

People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.

The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.

We all have two lives: an inner life and an outer life. Your inner life is your soul life, which includes your mind, will and emotions. Your outer life is your physical life. And while God cares about every detail of your life, He is more concerned with your inner life than your outer life.

Knowledge is power.

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

He who knows himself is enlightened.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

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

It is necessary to fall in love… if only to provide an alibi for all the random despair you are going to feel anyway.

I get naturally uncomfortable when I’m put under a magnifying glass.

The question is not, ‚Do you have a problem?‘ The question is, ‚Does the problem have you?‘

Getting old is a fascination thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.

Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.

Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.

Every time you think the problem is ‚out there,‘ that very thought is the problem.

There are phases in life which surface at times, and it makes you understand that despite you working hard, everything what you are doing is probably not enough. That’s when you need to look around, and beyond.

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

Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.

I am not a self-help writer. I am a self-problem writer. When people read my books, I provoke some things. I cannot justify my work. I do my work; it is up to them to classify it, to judge.

Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?

If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.

I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

No one is laughable who laughs at himself.

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.

To observations which ourselves we make, we grow more partial for th‘ observer’s sake.

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

Love is an interesting thing.

There’s a long way to fall when you pretend that you’re so far away from the earth, far away from reality, floating in a bubble that’s protected by fame or success. It’s scary, and it’s the thing I fear the most: to be swallowed up by that bubble. It can be poison to you, fame.

I was ashamed to admit I was hipped to the idea of acting. That’s why I started in with the props.

I kinda live where I find myself.

One of the things I realized is that if you do not take control over your time and your life, other people will gobble it up. If you don’t prioritize yourself, you constantly start falling lower and lower on your list, your kids fall lower and lower on your list.

Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn’t, then why would you say I am.

I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.

Love has reasons which reason cannot understand.

Stay humble and be concerned for the less fortunate.

I think women go crazy for a reason. It’s not like it just happens.