Man first creates the universe in his image, and then turns round to say that God created man in his image... As Voltaire quipped, if God created man in his image, man has returned the compliment.

Depression: the healthy suspicion that modern life has no meaning and that modern society is absurd and alienating.

There are essentially three types of people: those who love life more than they fear it, those who fear life more than they love it, and those who have no clue what I'm talking about.

A man shrinks or expands into the degree and nature of his ambition. Ambition needs to be cultivated and refined, and yet has no teachers.

Wonder begets culture, which begets yet more wonder, and the end of wonder is wisdom, which is the state of perpetual wonder.

Our life is just as long or short as our remembering: as rich as our imagining, as vibrant as our feeling, and as profound as our thinking.

Love, like madness, can only fill the models that society makes available.

The problem with studying is that it gets in the way of education.

Love is like chickenpox. It's much worse when it comes late.

Of all funny things, truth is the funniest.

An artist is someone who, needing nothing and no one, wants everything and everyone.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

To complain that I could only be married once was like complaining that I had only been born once.

Be kind to every person you meet because we don't know their battles.

....They're called "better halves" for a reason, I guess. You can't have one half that's worse than you. It'd be a disaster.

One who conquers others is great, one who conquers the world is mighty, but one who conquers himself is divine.

...You know what I mean?

Every man is a valuable member of society, who, by his observations, researches, and experiments, procures knowledge for men.

Cara [Delevingne] I wanted to be sure that she would be involved. 'Cause she didn't do a lot of films before I met her, so I didn't know if she was serious and so I push her a bit.

I enjoy hearing the way people think. I always have.

If you like to tell stories and compose sentences, and if you work hard at being good at these things, then you are a writer even if you haven't published anything.