the ugly may be beautiful, the pretty never.
politics is for people who have a passion for changing life but lack a passion for living it.
the greatest men that ever live pass away unknown.
there are many things worth living for, there are a few things worth dying for, but there is nothing worth killing for.
the Earth is God’s pinball machine and each quake, tidal wave, flash flood and volcanic eruption is the result of a tilt that occurs when God, cheating, tries to win a free game.
stop the world, i want to get off.
to specialize is to brush one tooth.
if you take any activity, any art, any discipline, any skill, take it and push it as far as it will go, push it to the wildest edge of edges, then you force it into the realm of magic.
as a child, i was an imaginary playmate.
are the past and the future manufactured by the present?
we are what we see. we see what we choose.
definitions are limiting.
if you want to change the world, change yourself.
the function of the artist is to provide what life does not.
logic only gives man what he needs, magic gives him what he wants.
there is no such thing as a weird human being. it’s just that some people require more understanding than others.
civilization is dulling the senses.
among the haida indians of the pacific northwest, the verb for “making poetry” is the same verb “to breathe”.
there are three lost continents; mu (hawaiian), atlantis, and romantics.
sandwiches were invented by the earl of sandwich, popcorn was invented by the earl of popcorn, and salad dressing by the oil of vinegar.
society had a crime problem. it hired cops to attack crime. now society has a cop problem.
the inspiring thing about scrambled eggs is that any way you turn them they’re sunny side up.
equality is not regarding different things similarly, equality is in regarding different things differently.
it’s not men who limit women, it’s not straights who limit gays, it’s not whites who limits blacks. what limits people is a lack of character.
people are never perfect, but love can be.
it’s not at all unusual for love to last a lifetime. it’s passion that doesn’t last.
smoking a cigarette is like having a friend.
space is merely a device to prevent everything from being in the same spot.
as soon as you give it up, you can have it.
laws are like buttons, they are meant to be undone when the moment is ripe.
a life lived for love is the only sane life.
romance is not a bandwagon to be jumped on by lost souls with nothing more interesting to ride.
morality depends on culture.
objects smaller than the human body possess the quality of privateness. objects larger than the human body possess the quality of publicness.
funny how we think of romance involving two, when the romance of solitude can be so much more delicious and intense.
it isn’t love that is so important to us but the mystery itself.
the greatest men are the most alone.
love is like trying to carry a full garbage can on your back over a rushing river of piss.
the earth is permanent, are you?
are you living for today or tomorrow?
hate kills the soul, and what is life without a soul?
don’t do crack it’s a ghetto drug.
success is an obedience to a structured way of life.
no one is born a bigot.
to love the world with the eyes one uses them as hands, to love the world with ideas one uses them as eyes.
love is an indissoluble link between body and spirit.
if god meant for you to be written on he would have made you paper.
it’s better to burp and taste it than fart and waste it.
classes get in the way of having fun.
the extreme always seems to make an impression.
there are no stupid questions.
express yourself completely, then keep quiet.
adventure is where you are when you wish you weren’t, and where you aren’t when you wish you were.
silence is the voice of complicity.
there’s a rainbow inside your mind.
your own best friend is the child inside.
life is worth living just because your alive.
if con is the opposite of pro, than congress is the opposite of progress.
we start with flesh and end with spirit, we start with facts and end with faith.
the journey begins where the map ends.
an artist without freedom, is like a bird without wings.
to know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.
when you try to change reality, you self destruct.
no one can predict how far you’ll soar, not even you until you spread your wings.
love one another, but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
express yourself completely, then keep quiet. be like the forces of nature: when it blows, there is only wind when it rains, there is only rain when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.
intimacy is a difficult art.
history begins when you become aware of it.
imagination is more important than knowledge.
true happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.
everything that one can see is a shadow cast by that we do not see.
to be able to find joy in another’s joy: that is the secret of happiness.
the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
the secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity.
it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eyes.
it is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
human existence is always irrational and often painful, but in the last analysis it remains interesting.
rational explanations seldom ease feelings…
gifts are tangible memories.
if the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind.
nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.
art shows us our world as we cannot see it for ourselves, focusing us on the beauty or strangeness or pathos there.
perfection doesn’t have limits. perfection is being there.
to travel is better than to arrive.
verbalized statements about reality should never be presumed to be reality itself.
the more you look, the more you see.
we always condemn most in others, that which we most fear in ourselves.
everything is at its peak of perfection.
mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration.
cautious silence is the sacred sanctuary of worldly wisdom.
a resolution declared is never highly though of – it only leaves room for criticism.
a person without knowledge is in a world without light.
good looks may be cloaked by careless attire.
there is no higher rule than that over oneself, over one’s impulses; there is the triumph of free will.
you get credit for being unique among your fellows because what is less expected is esteemed all the more.
fortune is desired, and sometimes nurtured, but fame is earned.
make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction.
everyone has something unrefined that needs training, and every kind of excellence needs some polish.
the real can never equal the imagined, for it is easy to form ideals but very difficult to realize them.
often, more is taught by a jest than by the most serious teaching.
a single cloud can hide the whole of the sun.
the best is always few and rare – abundance lowers value.
the excesses of popular applause never satisfy the sensible.
a cautious person does not make public his pursuit of wisdom.
never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones will invariably slink in after it.
to be occupied in what does not concern you is worse than doing nothing.
everyone would have excelled in something if he had known his strong point.
a shot foreseen always misses its mark.
a fine retreat is as good as a gallant attack.
it is a special privilege of good taste to enjoy everything at its ripest.
love so as to be loved.
exaggeration wastes distinctions and shows the narrowness of one’s knowledge or taste.
think with the few and speak with the many.
there is nothing more discreditable than to dislike those better than ourselves.
there is more valor needed not to take up the affair than in conquering in it.
the interior must be at least as impressive as the exterior.
to be choice, you must choose well.
the passions are the humor of the soul, and every excess in them weakens prudence.
diligence promptly executes what intelligence carefully thought through.
make haste slowly.
moral courage exceeds physical courage.
first be master over yourself if you would be master over others.
things are done quickly enough if done well.
what is worth much costs much.
there is no need to show your ability before everyone.
to have the first move is a great advantage when the players are equal.
it is better that he should suffer now than you should suffer afterwards and in vain.
few things are of the first importance, so let appreciation be rare.
esteem is to excellence what the west wind is to flowers: the breath of life.
most things are not obtained simply because they are not attempted.
self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.
a wise person is always consistent in his best qualities, and because of this he gets the credit of trustworthiness.
streams do less harm flowing than when dammed up.
to be inaccessible is the fault of those who distrust themselves.
emulate rather than imitate.
the ear is the sidedoor of truth but the frontdoor of lies.
the truth is generally seen, rarely heard.
push right to the extreme and it becomes wrong.
blame is like the lightning – it hits the highest.
a wise person gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
the more light a torch gives the more it burns away and the nearer it is to burning out.
it is easy to get a bad reputation because it is easy to believe evil, but hard to eradicate.
it is far easier to prevent than to rectify.
you cannot master yourself unless you know yourself.
there are mirrors for the face but none for the mind.
he who lives a fast life runs through life to its end doubly quick.
an ounce of wisdom is worth more than a ton of cleverness.
it is a great art to profit by all that is good, and, since nature has made people in their most perfected form an abstract of herself, so let art create in them a true microcosm by training their taste and intellect.
the passions are the gates of the soul.
things pass for what they seem, not for what they are.
we need not lose heart if something does not please someone, for other will appreciate it; nor need their applause turn our head, for there will surely be others to condemn it.
change refreshes the mind.
good things, when short, are twice as good.
well said is soon said.
do not wait till you are a setting sun.
a friend is a second self.
in times of prosperity prepare for adversity.
everyone is honored who gives honor.
pay respect that you may be respected, and know that to be esteemed you must show esteem.
if you are wise live as you can, if you cannot live as you would.
think more highly of what fate has given you than of what it has denied.
often the remedy causes the disease.
folly consists not in committing folly, but in not hiding it when committed.
learn to forget.
things do not pass for what they are but for what they seem.
a good exterior is the best recommendation of the inner perfection.
better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
better be wise with the many than a fool all alone.
the greatest wisdom often consists ignorance, or the pretense of it.
to find difficulties in everything may prove you clever but such wrangling writes you down as a fool.
he that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much and like a god in everything.
everything is in process of change, even the mind, and no one is always wise.
there is nothing that has no good in it.
it is no use pleasing yourself if you do not please others.
do not show your wounded finger, for everything will knock up against it.
feel the pulse of the soul in the tongue.
in conversation discretion is more important than eloquence.
everything cannot turn out well, nor can everyone be satisfied.
every excess of passion is a digression from rational conduct.
the insight of a true friend is more useful than the goodwill of others.
better be cheated in the price than in the quality of goods.
keeping friends is more important than making them.
there is no desert like living without friends.
friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
the wise are always impatient, for he that increases knowledge increase impatience with folly.
there is always time to add a word, never time to withdraw one.
everyone must act as he is, not as others would make him to be.
bad words even without bad deeds are bad enough; good words with bad deeds are worse.
in great crises there is no better companion than a bold heart.
all deformity of mind is more obnoxious than that of the body, because it violates a higher beauty.
evil news carries farther than any applause.
many people are not known to the world till they have left it.
a person should employ all his capacity and power at once and on every occasion.
live every act fully, as if it were your last.
love in the past is only a memory. love in the future is a fantasy. only here and now can we truly love.
in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.
it is not our preferences that cause problems but our attachment to them.
learn to respond, not react.
no matter how difficult the past, you can always begin again today.
fear is always an anticipation of what has not yet come.
fruit falls from the tree when it is ripe. They cannot be forced.
if you let cloudy water settle, it will become clear. if you let your upset mind settle, your course will also become clear.
learning is finding out what you already know. doing is demonstrating that you know it.
you teach best what you most need to learn.
your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.
the best way to avoid responsibility is to say, “i’ve got responsibilities.”
you’re always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.
like attracts like.
argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.
you are never given a wish without being given the power to make it true. however, you may have to work for it.
images are dreams, beauty is reality.
if you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.
you conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness.
every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. what you choose to do with them is up to you.
to be responsible is to be able to respond, able to answer for the way we choose to live.
there is no good and there is no evil, outside of what makes us happy and what makes us unhappy.
in order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom.
don’t be dismayed at good-byes. a farewell is necessary before you can meet again. and meeting again is certain for those who are friends.
the mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy.
fools laugh at others; wise men at themselves.
it is not having an eye for faults, but for beauties, that constitutes the real critic.
better to be alone than in bad company.
he who listens to what people say to him shall never have peace.
there is more trouble in having nothing to do than in having much to do.
it is one thing to speak much, and another to speak to the point.
a false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines.
when the wells dry, we know the worth of water.
silence is not always a sign of wisdom, but babbling is ever a folly.
he is not laughed at by others, that laughs at himself first.
he has good judgement, who relies not wholly on his own.
content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.
’tis great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults and greater to tell him his.
a wise man changes his mind; a fool never.
few things seem so possible as they are till they are attempted.
it is sure to be dark if you shut your eyes.
the greatest conqueror is he who conquers himself.
it is better to sit with a wise man in prison, than a fool in paradise.
a good example is the best sermon.
doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one makes you but even with him; forgiving it sets you above him.
the heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.
what the fool does in the end the wise man does in the beginning.
people who are wrapped up in themselves make small packages.
fools need advice most, but only wise men are the better off for it.
they who would be young when they are old, must act old when they are young.
great talkers: little doers.
he who loses money loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he who loses courage, loses all.
the devil can cite scripture to suit his purpose.
wish not so much to live long as to live well.
he that is of the opinion that money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.
a relationship can occasionally fulfill a person, but only a collision can transform them.
dreams don’t come true, dreams are true.
in each hello, there is an implied good-bye.
mediocrity’s a hairball coughed up on the persian carpet of creation.
success in life and love depends always on timing.
passion isn’t a path through the woods. passion is the woods.
the theatre of man is not always amusing, but it is always theatre.
the world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.
the generous man enriches himself by giving, whilst the miser hoards himself poor.
the greatest wealth is contentment with a little.
up, sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough.
nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue, to the end we should hear and see more than we speak.
a handful of common sense is worth a bushel of learning.
i hate to see a thing done by halves; if it be right, do it boldly; if it be wrong, leave it undone.
he that always complains is never pitied.
learn as if you were to live for ever; live as if you were to die tomorrow.
wise men learn by other mens mistakes, fools by their own.
neither speak well nor ill of yourself. if well, men will not believe you; if ill, they will believe a great deal more than you say.
to be proud of knowledge, is to be blind with light.
good words cost nothing, but are worth much.
the nature of the whole is always different from the mere sum of its parts.
losing, in a curious way, is winning.
the best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.
the only thing that shatters dreams are compromise.
no one does anything uncharacteristic of who they are.
