Man, when perfected, is the best of animals. When separated from law and justice, is the worst of all.
Two separate beings, in different circumstances, face to face in freedom and seeking justification of their existence through one another, will always live an adventure full of risk and promise.
Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift, through all the earth and perhaps in the end through a cliff into the sea, something of me. A ton of worms in an acre, that is a wonderful thought, a ton of worms, I believe it.
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The Sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus”
If I place love above everything, it is because for me it is the most desperate, the most despairing state of affairs imaginable.
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
There is only one unpardonable sin- deliberate cruelty. All rest can be forgiven.
I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves.
Everything should be first-rate in a person, his face, clothes, soul and thoughts.
In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.
Even in a less exaggerated description, any verbal account of a person is bound to find itself employing an assortment of waterfalls, lightning rods, landscapes, birds, etc.
Even in a less exaggerated description, any verbal account of a person is bound to find itself employing an assortment of waterfalls, lightning rods, landscapes, birds, etc.
“If a separate personal Paradise exists for each of us, mine must be irreparably planted with trees of words which the wind silvers like poplars, by people who see their confiscated justice given back, and by birds that even in the midst of truth of death insist on singing in Greek and saying eros, eros, eros.”
All religions must be tolerated... for every man must get to heaven in his own way.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.
I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.
Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.
“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.
Should I be grateful or should I curse the fact that despite all misfortune I can still feel love, an unearthly love but still for earthly objects.
Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.
The heart unites whatever the mind separates, pushes on beyond the arena of necessity and transmutes the struggle into love.
The excellency of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeable evaporate.
I demonstrate by means of philosophy that the earth is round, and is inhabited on all sides; that it is insignificantly small, and is borne through the stars.
A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty.
What's terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.
Perfection belongs to narrated events, not to those we live.
I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact.
You would hardly believe how difficult it is to place a figure alone on a canvas, and to concentrate all the interest on this single and universal figure and still keep it living and real.
Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate. Action is the dignity of greatness.
Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end.
Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.
There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.”
The child who concentrates is immensely happy.
And one by one the nights between our separated cities are joined to the night that unites us.
To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days.
Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.
Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
You might lose your spontaneity and, instead of composing first-rate Gershwin, end up with second rate Ravel.
The degree to which I can create relationships, which facilitate the growth of others as separate persons, is a measure of the growth I have achieved in myself.
“Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible - the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.”
I won't say that I'm an agnostic, since agnosticism maintains that one cannot know... but I'm not averse to the idea of some intelligence or some organizing force that set up the initial conditions of the universe in such a way that ultimately generated stars, planets and life.
Society is well governed when people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.
Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.
I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think.
Most people believe the mind to be a mirror, more or less accurately reflecting the world outside them, not realizing on the contrary that the mind is itself the principal element of creation.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
The peasant celebrates with song and dance the harvest safely gathered in. The cup of Bacchus flows freely, and many find their relief in deep slumber
Springtime is upon us. The birds celebrate her return with festive song, and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes
I suppose I have found it easier to identify with the characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened of life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really.