“Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards.”

The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting not with man, but with God.

The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you’ll never have.

I am convinced that God is love.

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.

My standpoint is armed neutrality.

It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.

Once you are born in this world you’re old enough to die.

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’.

Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth — look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.

Don’t forget to love yourself.

It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand.

The self-assured believer is a greater sinner in the eyes of God than the troubled disbeliever.

My sorrow is my castle.

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

It is very important in life to know when your cue comes.

Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.

I’ve known straight and gay people all my life. I can’t tell the difference. But I’d never marry a guy I didn’t like.

In the jungle, life and food depend on keeping your temper.

From our birthday, until we die, Is but the winking of an eye.

Can hope bloom in the shade? Can time give back what it takes away? I once saw the answers to life in your eyes; now I can remember the words to goodbye.

The life so short, the craft so long to learn.

Yet they that know all things but know That all this life can give us is, A child’s laughter, a woman’s kiss.

But how carve way i’ the life that lies before, If bent on groaning ever for the past?