I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.

Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.

Is it not enough that 'things are cruel and blind'? Must we also be cruel and blind?

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!

Only he who accepts clashes and conflicts in life, loves life.

There is also this benefit in brag: that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it.

Within the child lies the fate of the future.

One man with a gun can control 100 without one.

Old age, especially an honoured old age, has so great authority, that this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth.

The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.

Just as modern motorways have no room for ox-carts or wandering pedestrians, so modern society has little place for lives and ways that are too eccentric.

That's the trouble with the world. We all despise ourselves.

We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.

The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

To forgive is not just to be altruistic.