How young can you die of old age?
I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom.
I remembered the fox. One runs the risk of crying a bit if one allows oneself to be tamed.
Where there are so many, all speech becomes a debate without end. But two together may perhaps find wisdom.
Art and power will go on as they have done,--will make day out of night, time out of space, and space out of time.
There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100% Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else
Said a skunk to a tube-rose, "See how swiftly I run, while you cannot walk nor even creep."Said the tube-rose to the skunk, "Oh, most noble swift runner, please run swiftly!"
Aure entuluva! day shall come again!
Space really means the level of awareness or presence, not thinking. So, can you look at your partner and not think? Two conscious beings realize that the essence of the relationship is the space in it. Even when there is an egoic overlay, it is not too dense or heavy for you to sense the essence underneath it. You don't need to react to the egoic overlay. When you don't react to it you don't strengthen it.
I've been doing comedy longer than I haven't been doing comedy, as I was performing for three years before I even got on 'The Tonight Show.' There's truly nothing like it; it's intense and exhilarating, even though it looks so casual.
I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever the cost of peril.
If one desires to receive one must first give. This is called profound understanding.
I wait for the morning of my tears
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
The chief value of the new fact is to enhance the great and constant fact of life.
I can imagine no man who will look with more horror on the End than a conscientious revolutionary who has, in a sense sincerely, been justifying cruelties and injustices inflicted on millions of his contemporaries by the benefits which he hopes to confer on future generations: generations who, as one terrible moment now reveals to him, were never going to exist. Then he will see the massacres, the faked trials, the deportations, to be all ineffaceably real, an essential part, his part, in the drama that has just ended: while the future Utopia had never been anything but a fantasy.
Those who think are excessively few; and those few do not set themselves to disturb the world.
Tomorrow sees undone, what happens not to-day; Still forward press, nor never tire! The possible, with steadfast trust, Resolve should be by the forelock grasp. Then she will ne'er let go her clasp, And labors on, because she must.
All high beauty has a moral element in it.
When the boys come into my yard for leave to gather horse-chestnuts, I own I enter into nature's game, and affect to grant the permission reluctantly, fearing that any moment they will find out the imposture of that showy chaff. But this tenderness is quite unnecessary; the enchantments are laid on very thick. Their young life is thatched with them. Bare and grim to tears is the lot of the children in the hovel I saw yesterday; yet not the less they hang it round with frippery romance, like the children of the happiest fortune.
The human heart concerns us more than the poring into microscopes, and is larger than can be measured by the pompous figures of the astronomer.
Who are you, a hundred years from today, reading my poetry with curiosity?
Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?
The reason why all men honor love is because it looks up, and not down; aspires and not despairs.
When the vain speaker has sat down, and the people say 'what a good speech,' it still takes an ounce to balance an ounce.
The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That's all there ever is.
Time doesn't seem to pass here: it just is.
A pity beyond all telling is hid in the heart of love.
Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.
The riches of a country are to be valued by the quantity of labor its inhabitants are able to purchase, and not by the quantity of silver and gold they possess; which will purchase more or less labor, and therefore is more or less valuable, as is said before, according to its scarcity or plenty.
For over 1,700 years, the Jews have been bewailing their sad fate in that they have been exiled from their homeland, as they call Palestine. But gentlemen, did the world give it to them in fee simple, they would at once find some reason for not returning. Why? Because they are vampires, and vampires do not live on vampires. They cannot live only among themselves. They must subsist on Christians and other people not of their race.
For the butterfly, mating and propagation involve the sacrifice of life, for the human being, the sacrifice of beauty.
The critic's symbol should be the tumble-bug: he deposits his egg in somebody else's dung, otherwise he could not hatch it.
What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?
The process of living seems to consist in coming to realize truths so ancient and simple that, if stated, they sound like barren platitudes.
The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.
It was my ambition all of my life to be master of the spoken word.
He who cannot shine by thought, seeks to bring himself into notice by a witticism.
To clothe the fiery thoughtIn simple words succeeds,For still the craft of genius isTo mask a king in weeds.
The line of beauty is the line of perfect economy.
Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.
No fools are so difficult to manage as those with some brains.
Again, somehow, one saw life, a pure bead. I lifted the pencil again, useless though I knew it to be. But even as I did so, the unmistakable tokens of death showed themselves. The body relaxed, and instantly grew stiff. The struggle was over. The insignificant little creature now knew death. As I looked at the dead moth, this minute wayside triumph of so great a force over so mean an antagonist filled me with wonder. Just as life had been strange a few minutes before, so death was now as strange.
Our worst fault is our preoccupation with the faults of others.
Years ago, I tried to top everybody, but I don't anymore. I realized it was killing conversation. When you're always trying for a topper you aren't really listening. It ruins communication
Say what you have to say and the first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending - sit down.
In order to have friends, you must first be one.
For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.
My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me never to delight in praise or to be distressed by reproach. Before my Soul taught me, I doubted the value of my accomplishments until the passing days sent someone who would extol or disparage them. But now I know that trees blossom in the spring and give their fruits in the summer without any desire for accolades. And they scatter their leaves abroad in the fall and denude themselves in the winter without fear of reproof.
So I was getting into my car and this bloke says to me, 'Can you give me a lift?' I said, 'Sure, you look great, the world's your oyster, go for it!'
The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of nature. Every day, the sun; and after sunset, night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the grass grows.
We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.
Perfection isn't human. Human beings are not perfect. What evokes our love--and I mean love, not lust--is the imperfection of the human being. So, when the imperfection of the real person peaks through, say, 'This is a challenge to my compassion.' Then make a try, and something might begin to get going.
Be brave enough to do the loving thing.
I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.
To be conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind. This is one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey.
The Welfare of Each of Us Is Dependent Fundamentally Upon the Welfare of All of Us
Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.
But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you.
Life is like music for its own sake. We are living in an eternal now, and when we listen to music we are not listening to the past, we are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present.
