When you feel the desire for power, you should stay in solitude for some time

When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you'd like them to be.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly.

Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.

A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction.

Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody thinks about changing himself.

Once we're thrown off our habitual paths, we think all is lost, but it's only here that the new and the good begins.

An arrogant person considers himself perfect. This is the chief harm of arrogance. It interferes with a person's main task in life—becoming a better person.

Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know.

Men pray to the Almighty to relieve poverty. But poverty comes not from God's laws-it is blasphemy of the worst kind to say that. Poverty comes from man's injustice to his fellow man.

One's mind has a way of making itself up in the background and it suddenly becomes clear what one means to do.

Sometimes words are not enough. There are some circumstances so utterly wretched that I cannot describe them in sentences or paragraphs or even a whole series of books.

I've always admired people with really strong presences and felt that caring about the visual component of what you do is not intrinsically superficial or vain.

Some people can handle alcohol. You know who you are. Some people can't handle alcohol. The police know who you are.

When I was young I used to read about the decline of Western civilization, and I decided it was something I would like to make a contribution to.

You can't do anything sensible until you know what the situation is that you're in.

Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.

I don't blame any director for wanting to do something more commercial. That's all part of the business. I certainly have done it, as an actor.

Occasionally, in the middle of a conversation her name would be mentioned, and she would run down the steps of a chance sentence, without turning her head.

Prior to my election, young Cherokee girls would never have thought that they might grow up and become chief.