The true science and study of mankind is man.

The advice of friends must be received with a judicious reserve; we must not give ourselves up to it and follow it blindly, whether right or wrong.

It is certainly much easier wholly to decline a passion than to keep it within just bounds and measures; and that which few can moderate almost anybody may prevent.

Pleasure and pain, though directly opposite are contrived to be constant companions.

He who receives a benefit should never forget it; he who bestows should never remember it.

Wise men mingle mirth with their cares, as a help either to forget or overcome them; but to resort to intoxication for the ease of one's mind is to cure melancholy by madness.

Riches should be admitted into our houses, but not into our hearts; we may take them into our possession, but not into our affections.

All religions are pieced together out of elements which seem so at odds with reason that any intelligence laughs at them.

To owe an obligation to a worthy friend is a happiness, and can be no disparagement.

Wounds and hardships provoke our courage, and when our fortunes are at the lowest, our wits and minds are commonly at the best.

God, Nature, the wise, the world, preach man, exhort him both by word and deed to the study of himself.

The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.

...nothing wonderful lasted forever. Joy was as fleeting as a shooting star that crossed the evening sky, ready to blink out at any moment.

The most important thing for me - and the thing I get frustrated about when I don't achieve it - is momentum. Sometimes you hit on it quite naturally and other times it's a mad struggle.

People are the common denominator of progress; no improvement is possible with unimproved people.

Scientists are doing an awful lot of damage to the world in the name of helping it. I don't mind attacking my own fraternity because I am ashamed of it.

Government will not nominate the former Labor prime minister [Kevin Rudd] to be the UN's next secretary-general.

I have a great family, good friends, a nice girlfriend, my own house. I have got everything how I want it to be.

Guitar is great for a certain thing, but a piano is so much more expansive.

Flavor Five is a book with recipes using five ingredients to possibly be cooked in just five minutes. It will be very user-friendly for the home cook on the run.

Some people are going to be happy (with my decision). Some people aren't. But I must live my life.