Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

My life as a child did not prepare me for the fact that the world is full of cruel and bitter things.

If only the people who worry about their liabilities would think about the riches they do possess, they would stop worrying.

Assuming if there’s such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?

I was never ignorant, as far as being experienced in classrooms and learning about different subjects and actually soaking it up, so I checked into college for a little bit. I took classes at a community college in West L.A. I took psychology, English, and philosophy.

People tried to change my concept of what music is. That music is work, but it’s not like that.

If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is.

I’ve never considered musical equipment very sacred.

When one burns one’s bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.

The ‚I think‘ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‚I breathe‘ which actually does accompany them.

See things from the boy’s point of view.

When I write, it’s like choosing which shoes I’m going to put on. More often than not, my lyrics are personal – but I sometimes have to put myself in other people’s shoes.

Plato was a bore.

I define nothing. Not beauty, not patriotism. I take each thing as it is, without prior rules about what it should be.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

Don’t be afraid to see what you see.

It’s useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.

The world is a republic of mediocrities, and always was.

A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.

The word ‚happy‘ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.

All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness.

I really believe in the philosophy that you create your own universe. I’m just trying to create a good one for myself.

We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

I think I hate cynicism more than anything else. It’s the curse of our age, and I want to avoid it at all costs.

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man.

Many people find the universe confusing – it’s not.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

When you go to war as a boy, you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed, not you… Then, when you are badly wounded the first time, you lose that illusion, and you know it can happen to you.

A lot of us grow up and we grow out of the literal interpretation that we get when we’re children, but we bear the scars all our life. Whether they’re scars of beauty or scars of ugliness, it’s pretty much in the eye of the beholder.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

I think, in politics, half the people are gonna like you, and half the people are not gonna like you, no matter what you do or what you say… It’s like there are no right answers. If there were, everyone would choose the right answers. They’re all opinions.

Victory is a fleeting thing in the gambling business. Today’s winners are tomorrow’s blinking toads, dumb beasts with no hope.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.

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

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

People wonder aloud about whether I am an okay mother. That is obviously painful because it’s so important to me. It’s hard to hear that people think I’m not a capable mother and a good person, that they just think I’m nuts.

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

I’m not concerned with people seeing me in a certain way. Some people see me as a kid, some people see me as an adult. But I’m seriously not going to complain how anybody sees me, as long as they see me.

It is good to express a thing twice right at the outset and so to give it a right foot and also a left one. Truth can surely stand on one leg, but with two it will be able to walk and get around.

If you have enough people sitting around telling you you’re wonderful, then you start believing you’re fabulous, then someone tells you you stink and you believe that too!

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.

I don’t believe in an outside agent that creates the world, then walks away. But I feel very strongly there is an intelligence at work in every flower, in every blade of grass, in every cell of my body. And it is that intelligence that, I wouldn’t say created the universe. It is creating the universe. It’s an ongoing process.

How do you know what it’s like to be stupid if you’ve never been smart?

On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.

You always admire what you really don’t understand.

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.

I think the American people, with some justification, think that most politicians live in la-la land.