No one can transcend their own individuality.

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.

I really don't get nervous when I perform -it's more of an exciting feeling than anything else. But put me in a classroom with kids my age and have me take a test and yeah, I'll be nervous!

They can conquer who believe they can.

Early childhood education is the key to the betterment of society.

I can't tell a joke to save my soul. It's just not my thing, though I love to listen to jokes.

As human beings we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities.

I think it's difficult, if you're a quite private person like I am, to write about your life very intimately.

People should allow me to be many things, really give me the room to put things in another dimension.

Your non attachment to the mundane is your charm. Your attachment to the divine is your beauty.

Most things in here don't react well to bullets.

Shrewdness in public life all over the world is always honored, while honesty in public men is generally attributed to dumbness and is seldom rewarded.