For the purpose of acquiring gain, everything else is pushed aside or thrown overboard, for example, as is philosophy by the professors of philosophy.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so.

Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.

Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine.

Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

If evil exists its to be found in our fears.

Smile and be beautiful and kind like a flower.

What's needed on Earth is love of the dark side of ourselves

There are no rogue ships

I get tired of hearing my ballplayers bellyache all the time. They should sit in the press box sometime and watch themselves play.

The duty of a toastmaster is to be so dull that the succeeding speakers will appear brilliant by contrast.

He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk. Leadership is getting people to work for you when they are not obligated.

Fishing, with me, has always been an excuse to drink in the daytime

Huck Finn. Loss of identity drives people to nostalgia. Electronic man has no physical body, so he [Jimmy Carter] puts nostalgia in its place.

Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make.