Truth

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.

It's only when the tide goes out that you discover who's been swimming naked.

Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

Tell me what company you keep and I'll tell you what you are.

Well, there's a remedy for all things except death.

Fashion fades, only style remains the same.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

When you know a thing, hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, allow that you do not know it. This is knowledge.

Water is the driving force of all nature.

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

You become responsible forever for what you've tamed.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.

The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about.

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't understand it yourself.

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.

Error is also fine, as long as we don't stay in it.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges.

An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't.

If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

Well done is better than well said.

Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

Courage is grace under pressure.

Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact.

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.

We see things not as they are, but as we are.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

The time is always right to do what is right.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

The first condition of immortality is death.

Think before you think.

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

In a war of ideas, it is people who get killed.

Have you noticed that the easiest people to get along with are those who agree with you?

One's first step in wisdom is to question everything — and one's last is to come to terms with everything.

I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.

The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.

A book is a mirror; if an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out.

With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

There are no facts, only interpretations.

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule.

In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

Happiness can exist only in acceptance.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

War does not determine who is right — only who is left.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

Compassion is the basis of morality.

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves to be like other people.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

To be, or not to be, that is the question.

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

Youth is wasted on the young.

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.

Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

A good friend will always stab you in the front.

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

I can resist anything except temptation.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.