“If you don’t know, ask. You will be a fool for the moment, but a wise man for the rest of your life.”

Everyone rushes his life on, and suffers from a yearning for the future and a boredom with the present.

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

The thing that matters is not what you bear, but how you bear it.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.

Fire proves gold, adversity proves men.

A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.

All cruelty springs from weakness.

Life is long, if you know how to use it.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

The Best sign of Wisdom is the consistency between the words and deeds.

The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.

Life is like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.

Often a very old man has no other proof of his long life than his age.

When you die, it will not be because you are sick, but because you were alive.

The great thing is to know when to speak and when to keep quiet.

Leisure without books is death, and burial of a man alive.

You say: you are mourning a man that could not love you. Full stop. Cover the last word. There’s the truth.

When it comes to politics, I believe you have to cut the cake so that everybody gets a piece, but at the same time, you have to keep in mind that somebody has to make the cake.

I know that my son was an honest person and an honest artist, and what he gave from himself through his art was the depth of his humanity.

You are all either a manifestation of my light or shadows.

There’s a difference between being in love and being in love with the idea of love.

Isn’t there too much to say about what you are too scared to say.

It is always from the depths of its impotence that each power center draws its power, hence their extreme maliciousness, and vanity.

But my deepest and most secret love belongs to the fair-haired and the blue-eyed, the bright children of life, the happy, the charming and the ordinary.