I wrote myself a check for ten million dollars for acting services rendered and dated it Thanksgiving 1995. I put it in my wallet and it deteriorated. And then, just before Thanksgiving 1995, I found out I was going to make ten million dollars for Dumb & Dumber. I put that check in the casket with my father because it was our dream together.
Do it now. It is not safe to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of the world.
You never know how a horse will pull until you hook him up to a heavy load.
My head rang like a gong.
Never be a cynic, even a gentle one. Never help out a sneer, even at the devil.
Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast.
Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.
An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.
The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath.
Facts are the enemy of truth.
Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less.
I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.
Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.
I guess we'd be living in a boring, perfect world if everybody wished everybody else well.
I'm moving, but don't worry! Someone once told me we're all on the same planet, so I'll be okay!
Liberals are very broadminded: they are always willing to give careful consideration to both sides of the same side.
Creative work is play. It is free speculation using materials of one's chosen form.
We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.
Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.
Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.
The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Any transition serious enough to alter your definition of self will require not just small adjustments in your way of living and thinking but a full-on metamorphosis.
Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.
Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less.
When you make a mistake, don't look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.
Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.
The charity that hastens to proclaim its good deeds, ceases to be charity, and is only pride and ostentation.
What more felicity can fall to creature, than to enjoy delight with liberty.
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.
Think of life as a terminal illness, because, if you do, you will live it with joy and passion, as it ought to be lived.
Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.
It's the soul's duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.
We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
We inhereit from our ancestors gifts so often taken for granted... Each of us contains within... this inheritance of soul. We are links between the ages, containing past and present expectations, sacred memories and future promise.
Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.
I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
Keep true to the dreams of thy youth.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
Optimism and hope are our best friends. Let?s reach out and Laugh together at our confounding traits and still, let?s keep in mind that our sympt oms and traits are very real with consequences, never to be underestimated or discounted.
The car slewed to a stop and only then did I notice that it wasn't a cop car, ambulance or fire-engine.
I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Whatever you do, do it to the purpose; do it thoroughly, not superficially. Go to the bottom of things. Any thing half done, or half known, is in my mind, neither done nor known at all. Nay, worse, for it often misleads.
People fail forward to success.
Anger at lies lasts forever. Anger at truth can't last.
It's takin' whatever comes your way, the good AND the bad, that give life flavor. It's all the stuff rolled together that makes life worth livin'.
Look at all the sentences which seem true and question them.
Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions.
The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep.
By prizing heartfulness above faultlessness, we may reap more from our effort because we're more likely to be changed by it.
Van was screaming something and Jolu was shouting and I looked at them for a second and that was when someone put a coarse.
Do not believe that he who seeks to comfort you lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life has much difficulty... Were it otherwise he would never have been able to find those words.
One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.
A boy can learn a lot from a dog: obedience, loyalty, and the importance of turning around three times before lying down.
If you refuse to be made straight when you are green, you will not be made straight when you are dry.
Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.
I like to play blackjack. I'm not addicted to gambling, I'm addicted to sitting in a semi-circle.
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.
Turn the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.
There is an applause superior to that of the multitudes: one's own.
Truth has beauty, power and necessity.
By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up.
Be careful that victories do not carry the seed of future defeats.
Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.
I say luck is when an opportunity comes along, and you're prepared for it.
Be honorable yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people.
Our lives teach us who we are.
Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therin to be content
I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.
Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.
What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?
I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing on somebody's else advice.
Man is only miserable so far as he thinks himself so.
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.
A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive. Having been alive, it won't be so hard in the end to lie down and rest.
To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all.
Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady.
More movement, and the sense of bodies being shackled in alongside of me.
Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
I'd learned my lesson.
Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience.
I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's.
If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate.
There is surely a piece of divinity in us, something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun.
Is there life before death?
Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking.
O, it is excellent to have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.
I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
The best of us must sometimes eat our words.
Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.
Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.
I hope that when I die, people say about me, 'Boy, that guy sure owed me a lot of money.'
If you scatter thorns, don't go barefoot.
I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.
Temptation rarely comes in working hours. It is in their leisure time that men are made or marred.
There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle.
There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?
The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.
Sometimes love will pick you up by the short hairs...and jerk the heck out of you.
He's simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.
Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working.
Never does the human soul appear so strong and noble as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury.
You can go a long way with bad legs and a good head.
I phoned my dad to tell him I had stopped smoking. He called me a quitter.
The mellow sweetness of pumpkin pie off a prison spoon is something you will never forget.
Anger at lies lasts forever. Anger at truth can't last.
Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
I lived what most people call the good life. I was happy, but deep inside I always felt that, with the short amount of time we are given to live and love in this world, we spend too much time loving things instead of people.
But be, as you have been, my happiness...
Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.
We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are.
Never let the demands of tomorrow interfere with the pleasures and excitement of today.
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.
The world tolerates conceit from those who are successful, but not from anybody else.
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
I had no idea how much of this was making it through the muffling bag.
Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.
Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.
Fresh clean sheets are one of life's small joys.
Anyone who has gumption knows what it is, and anyone who hasn't can never know what it is. So there is no need of defining it.
Assuming either the Left Wing or the Right Wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles.
They weren't wearing insignia.
As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.
Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity.
By prizing heartfulness above faultlessness, we may reap more from our effort because we're more likely to be changed by it.
Posterity is as likely to be wrong as anyone else.
I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.
Some people make headlines while others make history.
Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again.
I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.
What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy.
The scornful nostril and the high head gather not the odors that lie on the track of truth.
Music is essentially useless, as life is.
Only some people get what they want. Those are the people who show up to get it.
Always seek out the seed of triumph in every adversity.
If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play at it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf.
Health consists of having the same diseases as one's neighbors.
I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you.
The great thing about a computer notebook is that no matter how much you stuff into it, it doesn't get bigger or heavier.
Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.
Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important.
Write down the advice of him who loves you, though you like it not at present.
Is love supposed to last throughout all time, or is it like trains changing at random stops. If I loved her, how could I leave her? If I felt that way then, how come I don't feel anything now?
Get away from the crowd when you can. Keep yourself to yourself, if only for a few hours daily.
Deeds, not words shall speak me.
Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.
I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's.
Everybody likes to go their own way--to choose their own time and manner of devotion.
Be thou the first true merit to befriend, his praise is lost who stays till all commend.
A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
Paradise is exactly like where you are right now... only much, much better.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
I have very strong feelings about how you lead your life. You always look ahead, you never look back.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.
I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's.
The secret of greatness is simple: do better work than any other man in your field - and keep on doing it.
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.
Fresh clean sheets are one of life's small joys.
Sometimes the cure for restlessness is rest.
Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.
Turn the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.
There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste.
Equal opportunity means everyone will have a fair chance at being incompetent.
Get pleasure out of life...as much as you can. Nobody ever died from pleasure.
If there's one thing I know it's God does love a good joke.
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.
You cannot be mad at somebody who makes you laugh - it's as simple as that.
To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can.
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
Only some people get what they want. Those are the people who show up to get it.
Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches.
There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.
If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate.
His priority did not seem to be to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even... knowledge, was foolproof.
An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.
I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.
A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means.
I?m telling you, things are getting out of hand. Or maybe I?m discovering that things were never in my hands.
Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.
What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
Man is only miserable so far as he thinks himself so.
Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted.
The pain of making the necessary sacrifices always hurts more than you think it's going to. I know. It sucks. That being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have, in this or any other lifetime. If you can pull it off, it's worth it. Even if you don't end up pulling it off, you'll learn many incredible, magical, valuable things. It's NOT doing it when you know you full well you HAD the opportunity- that hurts FAR more than any failure.
Get away from the crowd when you can. Keep yourself to yourself, if only for a few hours daily.
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.
I am not sincere, even when I say I am not.
The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.
Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience.
Ask a deeply religious Christian if he?d rather live next to a bearded Muslim that may or may not be plotting a terror attack, or an atheist that may or may not show him how to set up a wireless network in his house. On the scale of prejudice, atheists don?t seem so bad lately.
He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.
Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again.
Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
Never eat more than you can lift.
Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.
He's simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.
The first duty of a leader is to make himself be loved without courting love. To be loved without 'playing up' to anyone - even to himself.
Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.
When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.
Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.
The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.
It is wonderful how quickly you get used to things, even the most astonishing.
Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures free to explore the larger experiences of life.
He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.
I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty... But I am too busy thinking about myself.
He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.
I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.
The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.
It's a dangerous business going out your front door.
Before I met my husband, I'd never fallen in love, though I'd stepped in it a few times.
You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do.
The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.
In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
Never make a defense or an apology until you are accused.
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but, unlike charity, it should end there.
The truth is always a compound of two half- truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say.
Neither did the cop car that went past, nor the firetruck, nor the next three cop-cars.
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
This is the challenge of writing. You have to be very emotionally engaged in what you?re doing, or it comes out flat. You can?t fake your way through this.
Depend not on another, but lean instead on thyself...True happiness is born of self-reliance.
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all.
You should not live one way in private, another in public.
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
It is wonderful how quickly you get used to things, even the most astonishing.
There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness.
Be more prompt to go to a friend in adversity than in prosperity.
Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.
All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon sand.
I don't mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is a language I don't understand.
When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.
Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.
When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.
There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
I never met anybody who said when they were a kid, "I wanna grow up and be a critic."
There?s so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?
Be thou the first true merit to befriend, his praise is lost who stays till all commend.
If we fall, we don't need self-recrimination or blame or anger - we need a reawakening of our intention and a willingness to recommit, to be whole-hearted once again.
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again.
At my lemonade stand I used to give the first glass away free and charge five dollars for the second glass. The refill contained the antidote.
The Past is to be respected and acknoledged, but not to be worshiped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.
The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is 'look under foot.' You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think.
There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.
You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in.
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Sorrow was like the wind. It came in gusts.
The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is 'look under foot.' You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think.
It really doesn't matter if the person who hurt you deserves to be forgiven. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. You have things to do and you want to move on.
I have very strong feelings about how you lead your life. You always look ahead, you never look back.
Deeds, not words shall speak me.
You can only cure retail but you can prevent .
Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings.
The most beautiful adventures are not those we go to seek.
The Past is to be respected and acknoledged, but not to be worshiped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.
I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.
What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!
Someone dragged me by my arms out onto the road, then shoved me, stumbling, down a paved road.
I have a simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.
You can only cure retail but you can prevent .
Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.
It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.
That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from.
Make a decision, even if it's wrong.
Feet, why do I need them if I have wings to fly?
One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
Funny business, a woman's career: the things you drop on the way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman. It's one career all females have in common, whether we like it or not: being a woman.
Listen. Do not have an opinion while you listen because frankly, your opinion doesn?t hold much water outside of Your Universe. Just listen. Listen until their brain has been twisted like a dripping towel and what they have to say is all over the floor.
I was as scared as I'd ever been. There was screaming everywhere now, and more bodies on the floor, and the press from behind was as relentless as a bulldozer. It was all I could do to keep on my feet.
Better by far you should forget and smile than you should remember and be sad.
I don't mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is a language I don't understand.
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up.
There ain't no free lunches in this country. And don't go spending your whole life commiserating that you got raw deals. You've got to say, 'I think that if I keep working at this and want it bad enough I can have it.'
We think in generalities, but we live in detail.
There isn?t much better in this life than finding a way to spend a few hours in conversation with people you respect and love. You have to carve this time out of your life because you aren?t really living without it.
What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.
Seize opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind.
The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility.
You're dealing with the demon of external validation. You can't beat external validation. You want to know why? Because it feels sooo good.
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
We learn something every day, and lots of times it's that what we learned the day before was wrong.
They weren't wearing insignia.
I write because I'm afraid to say some things out loud.
The car slewed to a stop and only then did I notice that it wasn't a cop car, ambulance or fire-engine.
History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.
By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious, nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave.
I believe that every now and then it is important to laugh at ourselves and take a lighter approach to our life conditions.
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
For visions come not to polluted eyes.
My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted.
Your world is made of your memories, and your memories are given to you by your world. The whispering voice of happenstance is always in our ears. 'This is the world. This is the way things are. Look. Pay attention. Remember.'
Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
Make a decision, even if it's wrong.
Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
I felt the doors open near me, and then saw a confusion of booted feet moving close by.
Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less.
TV is chewing gum for the eyes.
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients.
What's the earth With all its art, verse, music, worth - Compared with love, found, gained, and kept?
Never read a book through merely because you have begun it.
Memory feeds imagination.
I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!
From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.
You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men.
The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
Experience is a good teacher, but she send in terrific bills.
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.
Like anyone else, there are days I feel beautiful and days I don't, and when I don't, I do something about it.
What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.
Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.
I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply ALL my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.
The car rocked back and forth and tipped uphill.
Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.
If it weren't for baseball, many kids wouldn't know what a millionaire looked like.
Art is science made clear.
You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.
We are what we repeatedly do.
Only some people get what they want. Those are the people who show up to get it.
I barely had time to register them before those rifles were pointed at me.
Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth?Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.
My home is not a place, it is people.
I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.
By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up.
Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
Intimacy is what makes a marriage, not a ceremony, not a piece of paper from the state.
The two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a big fat white guy who is threatened by change.
Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.
Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.
The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
I shouted, and earned a hard thump on my head for my trouble.
Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.
I don't think about risks much. I just do what I want to do. If you gotta go, you gotta go.
...happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
Look at all the sentences which seem true and question them.
I don't like composers who think. It gets in the way of their plagiarism.
It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.
Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again.
We learn and grow and are transformed not so much by what we do but by why and how we do it.
My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists.
The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.
Never rely on the glory of the morning nor the smiles of your mother-in-law.
A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means.
Never rely on the glory of the morning nor the smiles of your mother-in-law.
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in.
You cannot be mad at somebody who makes you laugh - it's as simple as that.
He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.
I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!
I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.
The faceless, eyeless armed man above me kept his gun very level.
Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.
What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!
The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.
People will buy anything that is one to a customer.
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
I kept talking. "Listen -- this is some kind of misunderstanding.
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
Order is not pressure which is imposed on society from without, but an equilibrium which is set up from within.
Let me tell you, quite frankly, it took a while and a lot of therapy to get here.
Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world.
A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of.
Is there life before death?
People were still cramming down the stairs, and more were squeezing past the turnstiles and down the escalators onto the platforms, but it was clear to me that this wasn't going to have a happy ending.
Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed.
Books...are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.
I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you.
The toughest question has always been, "How do you get your ideas?" How do you answer that? It's like asking runners how they run, or singers how they sing. They just do it!
So quick and so fiercely I barely had time to gasp before it was locked on me.
Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.
You need only claim the event of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality.
Neither did the cop car that went past, nor the firetruck, nor the next three cop-cars.
He attacked everything in life with a mix of extrordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.
Get away from the crowd when you can. Keep yourself to yourself, if only for a few hours daily.
Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others.
For the night was not impartial. No, the night loved some more than others, served some more than others.
I was in total darkness now and I strained my ears to hear what was going on with my friends.
He attacked everything in life with a mix of extrordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.
Music is essentially useless, as life is.
Well done is better than well said.
Is love supposed to last throughout all time, or is it like trains changing at random stops. If I loved her, how could I leave her? If I felt that way then, how come I don't feel anything now?
The movies are the only business where you can go out front and applaud yourself.
What's the earth With all its art, verse, music, worth - Compared with love, found, gained, and kept?
There is an applause superior to that of the multitudes: one's own.
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
We cannot destroy kindred: Our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break.
I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you.
There are two types of people--those who come into a room and say, 'Well, here I am!' and those who come in and say, 'Ah, there you are.'
I'm going to stay in show business until I'm the last one left.
The great thing about a computer notebook is that no matter how much you stuff into it, it doesn't get bigger or heavier.
There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.
Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.
I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
It is not much for its beauty that makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
I've grown to realize the joy that comes from little victories is preferable to the fun that comes from ease and the pursuit of pleasure.
Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.
My friends are my estate.
Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us.
The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the young.
Each body has its art...
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
I nearly fell again, but new hands grabbed me from in front and dragged me down a steel floor and then forced me to my knees and locked my hands to something behind me.
We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are.
Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.
We inhereit from our ancestors gifts so often taken for granted... Each of us contains within... this inheritance of soul. We are links between the ages, containing past and present expectations, sacred memories and future promise.
The only difference between a rut and a grave... is in their dimensions.
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in.
Many people weigh the guilt they will feel against the pleasure of the forbidden action they want to take.
I kept talking. "Listen -- this is some kind of misunderstanding.
There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
You freeze where you are, time stops, and your heart thunders in your ears.
Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.
It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.
The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.
The only difference between a rut and a grave... is in their dimensions.
Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.
Everybody likes to go their own way--to choose their own time and manner of devotion.
There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
I don't own a cell phone or a pager. I just hang around everyone I know, all the time. If someone wants to get a hold of me, they just say 'Mitch,' and I say 'what?' and turn my head slightly.
My wish is to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I will not resign myself...
In America, they want you to accomplish these great feats, to pull off these David Copperfield-type stunts. You want me to be great, but you don't ever want me to say I'm great?
Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
Ask a deeply religious Christian if he?d rather live next to a bearded Muslim that may or may not be plotting a terror attack, or an atheist that may or may not show him how to set up a wireless network in his house. On the scale of prejudice, atheists don?t seem so bad lately.
You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious, nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave.
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
Creative work is play. It is free speculation using materials of one's chosen form.
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but, unlike charity, it should end there.
You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door.
It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
I ran the wrong kind of business, but I did it with integrity.
Make hunger thy sauce, as a medicine for health.
Books...are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.
Even the best of friends need time apart.
My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the hell she is.
Do it now. It is not safe to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of the world.
It's important to begin a search on a full stomach.
I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you.
I nearly fell again, but new hands grabbed me from in front and dragged me down a steel floor and then forced me to my knees and locked my hands to something behind me.
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.
Make a decision, even if it's wrong.
When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle.
Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
What makes the engine go? Desire, desire, desire.
I was not a child prodigy, because a child prodigy is a child who knows as much when it is a child as it does when it grows up.
The world tolerates conceit from those who are successful, but not from anybody else.
A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
Seize opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind.
That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.
Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.
Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.
Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?
Any transition serious enough to alter your definition of self will require not just small adjustments in your way of living and thinking but a full-on metamorphosis.
Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it.
There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
I'm moving, but don't worry! Someone once told me we're all on the same planet, so I'll be okay!
Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid.
History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.
A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary.
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.
All things are difficult before they are easy.
In an industrial society which confuses work and productivity, the necessity of producing has always been an enemy of the desire to create.
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.
Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth?Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.
O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.
The strongest possible piece of advice I would give any young woman is: Don't screw around, and don't smoke.
Is love supposed to last throughout all time, or is it like trains changing at random stops. If I loved her, how could I leave her? If I felt that way then, how come I don't feel anything now?
The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.
If you're trying to take a roomful of people by surprise, it's a lot easier to hit your targets if you don't yell going through the door.
Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
A poem is no place for an idea.
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
My wish is to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I will not resign myself...
I like to play blackjack. I'm not addicted to gambling, I'm addicted to sitting in a semi-circle.
If it weren't for baseball, many kids wouldn't know what a millionaire looked like.
When everyone is against you, it means that you are absolutely wrong-- or absolutely right.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
The average person thinks he isn't.
By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up.
For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.
There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
I used to believe that marriage would diminish me, reduce my options. That you had to be someone less to live with someone else when, of course, you have to be someone more.
The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.
There is an evil tendency underlying all our technology - the tendency to do what is reasonable even when it isn't any good.
The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important.
Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.
It is not enough to do good; one must do it the right way.
By learning to discover and value our ordinariness, we nurture a friendliness toward ourselves and the world that is the essence of a healthy soul.
What more felicity can fall to creature, than to enjoy delight with liberty.
Self-importance is our greatest enemy. Think about it - what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellowmen. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.
Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working.
Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.
You never know how a horse will pull until you hook him up to a heavy load.
Humor is also a way of saying something serious.
The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.
The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
The Past is to be respected and acknoledged, but not to be worshiped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.
I was in total darkness now and I strained my ears to hear what was going on with my friends.
Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.
Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again.
Money doesn't always bring happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars.
I looked up and saw a bunch of military-looking guys in coveralls, holding big, bulky rifles and wearing hooded gas masks with tinted face-plates.
I was pushed roughly but dispassionately onto my stomach and something went twice around my wrists and then tightened up as well, feeling like baling wire and biting cruelly.
A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top .
Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that you live, if you do.
Human beings have an inalienable right to invent themselves.
I was sick of cars driving right past me.
You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?
Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Your parents, they give you your life, but then they try to give you their life.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.
I don't generally feel anything until noon; then it's time for my nap.
Funny business, a woman's career: the things you drop on the way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman. It's one career all females have in common, whether we like it or not: being a woman.
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
How we treasure (and admire) the people who acknowledge us!
Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author?
Well done is better than well said.
Real love is a permanently self-enlarging experience.
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.
Never be a cynic, even a gentle one. Never help out a sneer, even at the devil.
There ain't no free lunches in this country. And don't go spending your whole life commiserating that you got raw deals. You've got to say, 'I think that if I keep working at this and want it bad enough I can have it.'
A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.
He's simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.
I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!
Make hunger thy sauce, as a medicine for health.
Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that you live, if you do.
There isn?t much better in this life than finding a way to spend a few hours in conversation with people you respect and love. You have to carve this time out of your life because you aren?t really living without it.
In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.
I heard them shouting through the muffling canvas of the bag, and then I was being impersonally hauled to my feet by my wrists, my arms wrenched up behind my back, my shoulders screaming.
Is there life before death?
If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; If you would know, and not be known, live in a city.
The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.
The car skidded to a stop just in front of me, and I jumped back and lost my balance and ended up on the road.
Let not thy will roar, when thy power can but whisper.
Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle.
Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.
So quick and so fiercely I barely had time to gasp before it was locked on me.
The Past is to be respected and acknoledged, but not to be worshiped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.
Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.
Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.
After the last of 16 mounting screws has been removed from an access cover, it will be discovered that the wrong access cover has been removed.
Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be.
Get away from the crowd when you can. Keep yourself to yourself, if only for a few hours daily.
Dance is the hidden language of the soul.
Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people; they're just acquaintances.
Nothing is said that has not been said before.
I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.
Is there life before death?
Level with your child by being honest. Nobody spots a phony quicker than a child.
Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else.
Each individual woman's body demands to be accepted on its own terms.
I?m telling you, things are getting out of hand. Or maybe I?m discovering that things were never in my hands.
What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
There are plenty of good five-cent cigars in the country. The trouble is they cost a quarter. What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel.
I didn't even breathe.
A physicist is an atom's way of knowing about atoms.
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.
The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.
Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
Having a holiday weekend without a family member felt like putting on a sweater that had an extra arm.
Do something. If it doesn't work, do something else. No idea is too crazy.
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.
If our early lessons of acceptance were as successful as our early lessons of anger, how much happier we would all be.
Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.
Beware the pull on your heartstrings -- it's often the pursestrings that are actually being reached for.
People were still cramming down the stairs, and more were squeezing past the turnstiles and down the escalators onto the platforms, but it was clear to me that this wasn't going to have a happy ending.
It is my hope that I can assist you in getting here too.
All things are difficult before they are easy.
Is there life before death?
We play the hands of cards life gives us. And the worst hands can make us the best players.
The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.
Sometimes love will pick you up by the short hairs...and jerk the heck out of you.
Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness.
Feet, why do I need them if I have wings to fly?
Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.
People will buy anything that is one to a customer.
There is an applause superior to that of the multitudes: one's own.
Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience.
Where facts are few, experts are many.
Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
Doubt 'til thou canst doubt no more...doubt is thought and thought is life. Systems which end doubt are devices for drugging thought.
Nobody is ever met at the airport when beginning a new adventure. It's just not done.
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that you live, if you do.
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.
Health consists of having the same diseases as one's neighbors.
I sent the club a wire stating, PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
Intimacy is being seen and known as the person you truly are.
I believe that every now and then it is important to laugh at ourselves and take a lighter approach to our life conditions.
What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of high living.
Never does the human soul appear so strong and noble as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury.
Go often to the house of thy friend; for weeds soon choke up the unused path.
The charity that hastens to proclaim its good deeds, ceases to be charity, and is only pride and ostentation.
Is there life before death?
Confidence is the sexiest thing a woman can have. It's much sexier than any body part.
In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.
A neurosis is a secret that you don't know you are keeping.
I wrote myself a check for ten million dollars for acting services rendered and dated it Thanksgiving 1995. I put it in my wallet and it deteriorated. And then, just before Thanksgiving 1995, I found out I was going to make ten million dollars for Dumb & Dumber. I put that check in the casket with my father because it was our dream together.
To be willing to die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.
Temptation rarely comes in working hours. It is in their leisure time that men are made or marred.
For visions come not to polluted eyes.
The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.
I went up the stairs cautiously, not able to use my hands.
Rest is the sweet sauce of labor.
Noble life demands a noble architecture for noble uses of noble men. Lack of culture means what it has always meant: ignoble civilization and therefore imminent downfall.
Assuming either the Left Wing or the Right Wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles.
We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
It had only one fault. It was kind of lousy.
One thing I've learned in all these years is not to make love when you really don't feel it; there's probably nothing worse you can do to yourself than that.
I'm moving, but don't worry! Someone once told me we're all on the same planet, so I'll be okay!
Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy.
Whenever evil befalls us, we ought to ask ourselves, after the first suffering, how we can turn it into good. So shall we take occasion, from one bitter root, to raise perhaps many flowers.
The happiest is the person who suffers the least pain; the most miserable who enjoys the least pleasure.
Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.
Let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read "President Can't Swim".
For the night was not impartial. No, the night loved some more than others, served some more than others.
Feet, why do I need them if I have wings to fly?
Is love supposed to last throughout all time, or is it like trains changing at random stops. If I loved her, how could I leave her? If I felt that way then, how come I don't feel anything now?
I'd never looked down the barrel of a gun before, but everything you've heard about the experience is true.
The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the young.
The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
Let not thy will roar, when thy power can but whisper.
The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.
If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.
When everyone is against you, it means that you are absolutely wrong-- or absolutely right.
The great thing about a computer notebook is that no matter how much you stuff into it, it doesn't get bigger or heavier.
Most of the basic truths of life sound absurd at first hearing.
It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients.
I don't believe in intuition. When you get sudden flashes of perception, it is just the brain working faster than usual. But you've been getting ready to know it for a long time, and when it comes, you feel you've known it always.
The only time to buy these is on a day with no 'y' in it.
Over the years your bodies become walking autobiographies, telling friends and strangers alike of the minor and major stresses of your lives.
The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.
All things are difficult before they are easy.
The happiest is the person who suffers the least pain; the most miserable who enjoys the least pleasure.
I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.
Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.
Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists.
Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare.
College isn't the place to go for ideas.
Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing.
Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.
I have very strong feelings about how you lead your life. You always look ahead, you never look back.
You can learn as much - or more - from one glance at a private space as you can from hours of exposure to a public face.
I was sick of cars driving right past me.
Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author?
The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for.
Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.
I have the worst memory ever so no matter who comes up to me - they're just, like, 'I can't believe you don't remember me!" I'm like, 'Oh Dad I'm sorry!'
I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business.
The average person thinks he isn't.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
Doubt 'til thou canst doubt no more...doubt is thought and thought is life. Systems which end doubt are devices for drugging thought.
The toughest question has always been, "How do you get your ideas?" How do you answer that? It's like asking runners how they run, or singers how they sing. They just do it!
From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.
Could you imagine how horrible things would be if we always told others how we felt? Life would be intolerably bearable.
True friends are those who really know you but love you anyway.
It is better to wear out than to rust out.
Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.
To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge it, requires brains.
All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.
Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
Make a decision, even if it's wrong.
Do it now. It is not safe to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of the world.
There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste.
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
A chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise.
Get away from the crowd when you can. Keep yourself to yourself, if only for a few hours daily.
Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less.
Van was screaming something and Jolu was shouting and I looked at them for a second and that was when someone put a coarse.
Depend not on fortune, but on conduct.
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again.
There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
Always seek out the seed of triumph in every adversity.
The pain of making the necessary sacrifices always hurts more than you think it's going to. I know. It sucks. That being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have, in this or any other lifetime. If you can pull it off, it's worth it. Even if you don't end up pulling it off, you'll learn many incredible, magical, valuable things. It's NOT doing it when you know you full well you HAD the opportunity- that hurts FAR more than any failure.
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
A physicist is an atom's way of knowing about atoms.
Be more prompt to go to a friend in adversity than in prosperity.
Listen. Do not have an opinion while you listen because frankly, your opinion doesn?t hold much water outside of Your Universe. Just listen. Listen until their brain has been twisted like a dripping towel and what they have to say is all over the floor.
Do it now. It is not safe to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of the world.
It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction.
All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors.
Oh, I don't blame Congress. If I had $600 billion at my disposal, I'd be irresponsible, too.
Love is, above all else, the gift of oneself.
Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.
My friend is one... who take me for what I am.
Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.
Sorrow was like the wind. It came in gusts.
Do it now. It is not safe to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of the world.
I was as scared as I'd ever been. There was screaming everywhere now, and more bodies on the floor, and the press from behind was as relentless as a bulldozer. It was all I could do to keep on my feet.
I cried out and my own voice was muffled by the hood.
If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is "thank you," that would suffice.
Sooner or later, we've got to work at it, no matter how many other careers we've had or wanted.
You're dealing with the demon of external validation. You can't beat external validation. You want to know why? Because it feels sooo good.
Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings.
Cheese - milk's leap toward immortality.
It's wonderful what we can do if we're always doing.
Where facts are few, experts are many.
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady.
By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up.
Doubt 'til thou canst doubt no more...doubt is thought and thought is life. Systems which end doubt are devices for drugging thought.
All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors.
Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.
The roses, the lovely notes, the dining and dancing are all welcome and splendid. But when the Godiva is gone, the gift of real love is having someone who'll go the distance with you. Someone who, when the wedding day limo breaks down, is willing to share a seat on the bus.
It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.
In an industrial society which confuses work and productivity, the necessity of producing has always been an enemy of the desire to create.
Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.
Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
Doubt 'til thou canst doubt no more...doubt is thought and thought is life. Systems which end doubt are devices for drugging thought.
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
Always seek out the seed of triumph in every adversity.
She screamed as she went down, and I saw her thrashing to get up, but she couldn't, the crowd's pressure was too strong.
Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.
Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therin to be content
That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.
Newspapermen learn to call a murderer 'an alleged murderer' and the King of England 'the alleged King of England' to avoid libel suits.
If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.
I write because I'm afraid to say some things out loud.
The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.
But be, as you have been, my happiness...
No one goes there nowadays, it's too crowded.
Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.
Act as if it were impossible to fail.
I like weights. You know where you stand with them. Well, sometimes you're lying under them, trying not to let them crush you, but you see, you KNOW they'd crush you if they could. There's honesty.
We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are.
The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for.
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.
History is more or less bunk.
So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.
The happiest is the person who suffers the least pain; the most miserable who enjoys the least pleasure.
Someone went upside my head again.
You can learn as much - or more - from one glance at a private space as you can from hours of exposure to a public face.
...happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.
We've got to get my friend to a hospital --"
Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.
If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate.
Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
All movements go too far.
Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.
Everybody likes to go their own way--to choose their own time and manner of devotion.
Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble.
But be, as you have been, my happiness...
Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.
Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again.
Your world is made of your memories, and your memories are given to you by your world. The whispering voice of happenstance is always in our ears. 'This is the world. This is the way things are. Look. Pay attention. Remember.'
Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated.
Self-importance is our greatest enemy. Think about it - what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellowmen. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.
There is no stigma attached to recognizing a bad decision in time to install a better one.
You should not live one way in private, another in public.
This is the challenge of writing. You have to be very emotionally engaged in what you?re doing, or it comes out flat. You can?t fake your way through this.
Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.
The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away.
Sometimes you can't see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others.
Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches.
When I came back to Dublin I was courtmartialed in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.
Posterity is as likely to be wrong as anyone else.
We were in the open concourse where the turnstiles were. It was hardly any better here -- the enclosed space sent the voices around us echoing back in a roar that made my head ring, and the smell and feeling of all those bodies made me feel a claustrophobia I'd never known I was prone to.
To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
I wanted to flag you down because my friend was bleeding. Someone stabbed him."
A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.
We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.
It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.
Someone's boring me. I think it's me.