“The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. The God’s name is Abraxas.”

Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest.

A tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me!… Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

Youth ends when egotism does; maturity begins when one lives for others.

Each man’s life represents a road toward himself.

To achieve the possible, we must attempt the impossible again and again.

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.

I live in my dreams — that’s what you sense. Other people live in dreams, but not in their own. That’s the difference.

Within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.

When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.

If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion.

Every phenomenon on earth is symbolic, and each symbol is an open gate through which the soul, if it is ready, can enter into the inner part of the world, where you and I and day and night are all one.

Chaos demands to be recognized and experienced before letting itself be converted into a new order.

We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.

Wisdom is nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment of life.

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night.

I wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.

And better had they ne’er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

Where were you born?” “On a battlefield,” [Yossarian] answered. “No, no. In what state were you born?” “In a state of innocence.

The softest breeze to fairest flowers gives birth: Think not that Prudence dwells in dark abodes, She scans the future with the eye of gods.

He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.

I do think that some people are born as old souls.

Confidence is something you’re born with. I know I had loads of it even at the age of 15.