“A consoling thought: what matters is not what we do, but the spirit in which we do it. Others suffer too; so much so that there is nothing in the world but suffering; the problem is simply to keep a clear conscience.”

Idleness makes hours pass slowly and years swiftly. Activity makes the hours short and the years long.

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.

I am the captain of my destiny, I do not abandon the ship in hard times, But, I do have sense enough not to go down with the ship.

Living is like working out a long addition sum, and if you make a mistake in the first two totals you will never find the right answer. It means involving oneself in a complicated chain of circumstances.

Not believing in anything is also a religion .

In general, the man who is readily disposed to sacrifice himself is one who does not know how else to give meaning to his life. The profession of enthusiasm is the most sickening of all insincerities.

We want Realism’s wealth of experience and Symbolism’s depth of feeling. All art is a problem of balance between two opposites.

There is mercy for everyone, except those who are bored with life.

The man of action is not the headstrong fool who rushes into danger with no thought for himself, but the man who puts into practice the things he knows.

Woman gives herself as a prize to the weak and as a prop to the strong and no man ever has what he should.

One does not kill oneself for love of a woman, but because love – any love – reveals us in our nakedness, our misery, our vulnerability, our nothingness.

It had to happen to you, to concentrate your whole life on one point, and then discover that you can do anything except live at that point.

There is something indecent in words .

Give me the ready hand rather than the ready tongue.

We never remember days, only moments.

Misfortunes cannot suffice to make a fool into an intelligent man.

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

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet not withstanding go out to meet it.

So it’s really a process of actually having a realization of God, which all becomes clear with the expanded state of consciousness that develops when you chant.

We do not commonly see in a tax a diminution of freedom, and yet it clearly is one.

I see but one rule: to be clear.

I think in terms of emotions. And feelings. So sometimes what I say may not always be clear. But creatively, there’s a lot to be said for that way of thinking.

I am just fascinated by music and I want to know how to identify all the things I love about it; to me music theory is like learning another language and then being able to explain how much you love something more clearly.

The mere possibility provides no warrant for denying what I clearly grasp.