It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
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.
We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.
In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion; the more intelligent, the less sane.
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.
It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you.
Sapere aude. Dare to be wise.
The intelligent man is never bored.
I see myself as an intelligent, sensitive human, with the soul of a clown which forces me to blow it at the most important moments.
Vocabulary enables us to interpret and to express. If you have a limited vocabulary, you will also have a limited vision and a limited future.
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.
The kinder and more intelligent a person is, the more kindness he can find in other people. Kindness enriches our life; with kindness mysterious things become clear, difficult things become easy and dull things become cheerful.
Wisdom is the daughter of experience.
Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.
The zionist argument to justify Israel’s present occupation of Arab Palestine has no intelligent or legal basis in history.
Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?
Think of what you have rather than of what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.
Objective judgement, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance – now, at this very moment – of all external events. That’s all you need.