“Do you see that tree? It is dead but it still sways in the wind with the others. I think it would be like that with me. That if I died I would still be part of life in one way or another.”

A good upbringing means not that you won’t spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won’t notice it when someone else does.

If you wish women to love you be original; I know a man who used to wear felt boots summer and winter & women fell in love with him.

Do silly things. Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life.

In all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit.

Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.

You ask me what life is. That’s like asking what a carrot is. A carrot is a carrot, and there’s nothing more to know.

The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.

He who desires nothing, hopes for nothing, and is afraid of nothing, cannot be an artist.

A man and a woman marry because both of them do not know what to do with themselves.

My love is like a stone tied round my neck; it’s dragging me down to the bottom; but I love my stone. I can’t live without it.

What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.

Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.

If you want to work on your art, work on your life.

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

People are far more sincere and good-humored at speeding their parting guests than on meeting them.

Life on earth is inconceivable without trees.

You see some of the weirdest people in Detroit casinos.

People see me on the street, and they point to me, and they’re like, ‘Hey! All right, all right, all right!’

I must confess that my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea.

The ability to see reality in form, in color, in proportion, to be master of the movements of one’s own hand – that is what is necessary.

The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity.

How can any one paint who cannot grade colors? How can any one write poetry who has not learnt to hear and see?

A lumberman will look at a forest and see so many board feet of lumber. I see a living city.

Each morning sees some task begun, each evening sees it close; Something attempted, something done, has earned a night’s repose.