It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
You have no idea about presents or what they mean. The lastpresent you gave me was a stick.”“You wanted a weapon.”“It was a stick.”“It had a bow on it.”“It was a stick.”“I thought you liked the stick. You laughed.
Everyone has a sense of humor. If you don’t laugh at jokes, you probably laugh at opinions.
Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on–that is, badly.
For I have known them all already, known them all—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
Without philosophy man cannot know what he makes; without religion he cannot know why.
I am philosophical Christ; crucified on the cross of ignorance for the sake ofdivine vanity.
What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.
There are a million rules for being a girl. There are a million things you have to do to get through each day. High school has things that can trip you up, ruin you, people say one thing and mean another, and you have to know all the rules, you have to know what you can and can’t do.
What a waste my life would be without all the beautiful mistakes I’ve made.
The hardest thing in the world is to let go of who you once thought you were and to manifest your true self, at the risk of being unloved. This is self-actualization.
Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
Oh, I can’t help quoting you, because everything that you said rings true.
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.
I like to have a martini,Two at the very most.After three I’m under the table,after four I’m under my host.
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
Autobiography begins with a sense of being alone. It is an orphan form.
You know how the tightrope guy at the circus wants everyone to believe his act is an art, but deep down you can see that he’s really just hoping he makes it all the way across?
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.
There’s a sorrow and pain in everyone’s life, but every now and then there’s a ray of light that melts the loneliness in your heart and brings comfort like hot soup and a soft bed.
Mine was the twilight and the morning. Mine was a world of rooftops and love songs.
Why is there ever this perverse cruelty in humankind, that makes us hurt most those we love best?
The pity of it was that this discovery, if such it was, now seemed so stale, so profitless to me. What good was it? What good did thinking ever do?
It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth – and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.
No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible.
Life keeps throwing me lemons because I make the best lemonade…
Honesty and openness is always the foundation of insightful dialogue.
Oh, Mr. Thornton, I am not good enough!’
‘Not good enough! Don’t mock my own deep feeling of unworthiness.
No code of ethics and no effort are justifiable a priori in the face of the cruel mathematics that command our condition.
You asked me how to get out of the finite dimensions when I feel like it. I certainly don’t use logic when I do it. Logic’s the first thing you have to get rid of.
Don’t tell me about your god with your words. Show me about your god with your actions.
What was the point of even having a conversation when words couldn’t be trusted?
Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do, what experience tells you to do, and what your nerves let you do.
Tristan was silent for a few moments, looking at the leaves before them. “Life isn’t about the past and the future. It’s about today.” He paused. “It’s about five minutes from now and two seconds ago. It’s moments, you know? Not years. Years aren’t what define us.
One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.
Philosophy does not claim to secure for us anything outside our control. Otherwise it would be taking on matters that do not concern it. For as wood is the material of the carpenter, and marble that of the sculptor, so the subject matter of the art of life is the life of the self.
There are 10,000 books in my library, and it will keep growing until I die. This has exasperated my daughters, amused my friends and baffled my accountant. If I had not picked up this habit in the library long ago, I would have more money in the bank today; I would not be richer.
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.
…nothing ever happens quickly (except when it does). Nothing is ever, ever easy (except when it is). And, most of all, nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan (except in the movies).
No, this trick won’t work… How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?
What do I care how ‘e looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is zat my husband is brave!
Love is scary: it changes; it can go away. That’s the part of the risk. I don’t want to be scared anymore.
When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.
Often, it’s not about becoming a new person, but becoming the person you were meant to be, and already are, but don’t know how to be.
Every single university student should study philosophy. You need to lead the examined life and question your beliefs. If you don’t learn critical thinking, then political debate degenerates into a contest of slogans.
Olympism is a philosophy which, by blending sport with culture, seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal ethical principles.
His arms went round my waist. He had a big grin, full of teeth like stars. You saying you’re the jealous sort,Scar? I’m saying that some girls slap, but I have knives.
What the mind can conceive and believe, and the heart desire, you can achieve.
Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.
Ten spears go to battle,” he whispered, “and nine shatter. Did the war forge the one that remained? No, Amaran. All the war did was identify the spear that would not break.
Do no harm and leave the world a better place than you found it.
Here, start living moment to moment totally and intensely, joyfully and playfully — and you will see that nothing goes out of control; that your intelligence becomes sharper; that you become younger; that your love becomes deeper. And when you go out into the world, wherever you go, spread life, playfulness, joy, as far away as possible — to every nook and corner of the earth.
The things that stress me out haven’t changed.
But I don’t wanna lose anything.
So I thought that at least I would change.
I’m lucky…that I’m afraid of losing something.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are. Sometimes I feel the same as you: I can’t risk having people behold me as I truly am. But there’s also a small voice in the back of my mind, a voice that tells me, “You will miss so much by being so guarded.