Statesman are suspected of plotting against mankind, rather than consulting their interests, and are esteemed more crafty than learned.

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.

The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.

No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.

Reason connot defeat emotion, an emotion can only be displaced or overcome by a stronger emotion.

Nothing in nature is by chance... Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge.

The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is.

Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

The highest endeavor of the mind, and the highest virtue, it to understand things by intuition.

It is hard to take the last step, but the hardest thing is to make a choice between the unwillingness to live and the inability to die.

Start local, think global & constantly raise the bar of excellence.

You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward.

I like when a poem ends on its "receipts," meaning it gives me something tactile or tangible to dwell on as I exit the reading experience. So I strive to end my own poems that way as well.

A sin is nothing but a deordination of reason, but that is enough.

Every thought is an afterthought.

I'm nervous... but I'm not going to fear what I'm about to do, I'm going to take it head on and I'm going to conquer it.

Ah, now, don't cry over lost years and forgetfulness. The tales tell what they can. The rest is for us to learn.

It’s not manly to hurt others or belittle them. Respect and kindness require more courage because people take advantage of those.

You know, I don't really do that much looking inside me when I'm working on a project. Whatever I am becomes what that film is. But I change; you change.