The happiness of any given life is to be measured not by its joys and pleasures but by the extent to which it has been free from suffering from positive evil.

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 u are still alive and in your right senses, you are still destined to win greatly in life.

Amazing how a confluence of praise and lust can just make your defensive barriers collapse like Jell-O on a hot stove

in writing we live life twice: once in the experience, and again in recording and reflecting upon our experience.

I'm not going to change who I am just because people think it's weird.

The motion of the mind is conveyed along a cloud of meaning.~ There is this paradox that we get to meaning only when we strip the meaning from symbols.

Real success comes in small portions day by day. You need to take pleasure in life's daily little treasures. It is the most important thing in measuring success.

I think everybody dreamt somehow to make a film in Hollywood, you know.

You're happy when you leave your concerns to the side and when you experience a pure moment of joy with friends.

If you put people up on pedestals, there's only one way for them to go and that is down.

You've got to learn to accept the fool in you as well as the part that's got it goin' on.