“The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply, ‘Create silence’.”

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.

People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.

It is impossible to exist without passion.

The task must be made difficult, for only the difficult inspires the noble-hearted.

It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.

Boredom is the root of all evil.

Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.

If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible.

The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.

My melancholy is the most faithful sweetheart I have had.

What labels me, negates me.

In my great melancholy, I loved life, for I love my melancholy.

And this is one of the most crucial definitions for the whole of Christianity; that the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith.

What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?

I stick my finger into existence and it smells of nothing.

The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all.

My father always told me that. Nobody knows anything, so don’t listen to anyone else.

Don’t take a butcher’s advice on how to cook meat. If he knew, he’d be a chef.

If you want an enemy, the soul (nafs) is sufficient. If you want advice, death is sufficient.

I am mad, I am going under, I must follow the advice of a friend, and pay no heed to myself.

My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.

Jill, we became parents so we could tell our kids what to do. Otherwise we’re just the tallest people living here.

I guess the best advice I ever got or anyone could get for doing a talk show, though it has not been easy very often, was from Jack Paar, who said, ‘Kid, don’t make it an interview. Interviews have clipboards, and you’re like David Frost. Make it a conversation.’

Having sisters is the best. I have a different relationship with each of them. I go to Kim for fashion advice, Khloe is always boy and family advice, and Kourtney is like another mother to me.