It is only when a man is alone that he is really free.

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 people buy your story, you'll never run dry.

Awareness is a gentle beauty. It hovers around me like a fairy, pointing to those things I would miss if I didn't look past the obvious and on the other side of busy.

Exactly, " Jesus interrupted. "You imagine. Such a powerful ability, the imagination! That power alone makes you so like us. But without wisdom, imagination is a cruel task-master.

People cannot go wrong, if you don't let them. They cannot go right, unless you let them.

Every test, every trial, every heartache that's been significant, I can turn it over and see how God has turned it into good no matter what.

Power is a disease one has no desire to be cured of.

Well, it's such an intricate, beautiful script about eight professional robbers pulling a heist, and it deals with elements of betrayal, trust, instinct, and need for relationships.

No domestic animal can be as still as a wild animal. The civilized people have lost the aptitude of stillness, and must take lessons in silence from the wild before they are accepted by it.

I write fiction. I make things up, it's what I do.

Your tendency to be inward-directed or outward-directed is huge; it governs every part of the way you live and work and love.