You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

Solitude is independence.

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.

My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop thinking. I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking.

Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.

The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

Where the Mind is biggest, the Heart, the Senses, Magnanimity, Charity, Tolerance, Kindliness, and the rest of them scarcely have room to breathe.

I had a period in my life where I decided that I would never be bored again and that, if I had any free time at all, I would make plans, and I would always be doing things. It actually was great for a year or so, but then I lost all of my friends.

When all is said and done, more is said than done.

I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library.

The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.

Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.

I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement.

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

I’m an emotional person.

My moms always told me, ‚How long you gonna play the victim?‘ I can say I’m mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.

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

No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

My grandfather was smart and had a whole lot of pride. He didn’t speak a terrible amount, but you could tell there was a ton on his mind – like a quiet acceptance of how life had turned out.

If human beings were shown what they’re really like, they’d either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.

I briefly did therapy, but after a while, I realised it is just like a farmer complaining about the weather. You can’t fix the weather – you just have to get on with it.

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.

The people who truly know me know what I’m like. There have been people who try to say things that aren’t fair, and I check them. And then they don’t like me because I checked them.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

A man must now swallow more belief than he can digest.

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

Have the humility to learn from those around you.

With fame, you know, you can read about yourself, somebody else’s ideas about you, but what’s important is how you feel about yourself – for survival and living day to day with what comes up.

Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

Meditation is not following any system; it is not constant repetition and imitation. Meditation is not concentration.

My head’s never really quiet. The only time I can get it to turn off is if I watch ‚CSI‘ or ‚Law & Order,‘ where I have to follow the crime. If I can’t turn my head off during that, I know I’ve really got a problem.

To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body.

We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.

True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self elements. There’s no separation between self and other, and everything is interconnected.

I just make the pictures and where they fall is where they fall. If somebody likes them, that’s always nice. And if they don’t like them, then too bad.

Now I am older, I understand we have to accept who we are.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.

In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.

Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by his heart, and his friends can only read the title.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

I’ve noticed a terrible thing, which is I will agree to anything if it’s far enough in the future.

I think my worst problem is actually living in the moment and understanding everything that’s going on. I feel like I’m in my own bubble.

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

My overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be.

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

There’s love, and certainly children you care about more than yourself. But nevertheless, we’re alone in our heads.

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

History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right.

You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

I’m constantly thinking.

What’s done can’t be undone.

Art is always and everywhere the secret confession, and at the same time the immortal movement of its time.

Looking back on the production of ‚Nevermind,‘ I’m embarrassed by it now. It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.

The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

I have never felt more confident in myself, more clear on who I am as a woman. But I am constantly thinking about my own health and making sure that I’m eating right and getting exercise and watching the aches and pains. I want to be this really fly 80-90-year old.