Power is only vouchsafed to the man who dares to stoop and pick it up. There is only one thing, one thing needful: one has only to dare!

The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.

If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man ... just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man.

Learning to love is hard and we pay dearly for it. It takes hard work and a long apprenticeship, for it is not just for a moment that we must learn to love, but forever.

People speak sometimes about the "bestial" cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.

It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise.

Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.

I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.

Don’t be overwise; fling yourself straight into life, without deliberation; don’t be afraid - the flood will bear you to the bank and set you safe on your feet again.

The most offensive is not their lying - one can always forgive lying - lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth - what is offensive is that they lie and worship their own lying.

Some people make choices hoping for the best

I've always had my voice as a comic. I was never that into politics, or prop comedy.

Do you ever find yourself bursting into a sort of lunatic laughter at the sheer prettiness of things?

A photograph is a souvenir of life!

Is it so unjust that a man should leave the world by the same gate through which he entered it?

False teachers invite people to come to the Master's table because of what's on it, not because they love the Master.

Nothing is concealed from the wise and sensible, while the unbelieving and unworthy cannot learn the secrets.

The human race is a zone of living things that should be defined by tracing its confines.

My rule on honorary degrees has always been to have one more than Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

I wouldn't know how to think inside the box because I don't even know where it is. I wouldn't know how to do it any other way.