To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.”
Fun is good.
I've heard there are troubles of more than one kind; some come from ahead, and some come from behind. But I've brought a big bat. I'm all ready, you see; now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!
From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.
The Southern character is opposed to haste. Safety is of more worth than speed, and there is no hurry.
I am just learning to notice the different colors of the stars, and already begin to have a new enjoyment.
I was born, for instance, incapable of appreciating music.
The best that can be said of my life so far is that it has been industrious, and the best that can be said of me is that I have not pretended to what I was not.
Small aids to individuals, large aid to masses.
Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.
Fame is the echo of actions, resounding them to the world, save that the echo repeats only the last art, but fame relates all, and often more than all.
Change of weather is the discourse of fools
Prayer: the key of the day and the lock of the night.
A wise man turns chance into good fortune.
There is more pleasure in loving than in being beloved.
I'm not interested in having an orchestra sound like itself. I want it to sound like the composer.