On Love:
First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity.
Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.
The fickleness of the women I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.
On Life:
Home life is no more natural to us than a cage is natural to a cockatoo.
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
Home life is no more natural to us than a cage is to a cockatoo.
Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind and indeed cannnot endure it. . . . Happiness is not the object of life life has no object it is an end in itself. . .
Life is a disease and the only difference between one man and another is the stage of the disease at which he lives. You are always at the crisis I am always in the convalescent stage.
Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
Life is not meant to be easy, my child, But take courage, It can be delightful.
Life is not meant to be easy, my son, but take courage it can be delightful.
My situation is a solemn one. Life is offered to me on condition of eating beefsteaks. But death is better than cannibalism. My will contains directions for my funeral, which will be followed not by mourning coaches, but by oxen, sheep, flocks of poultry, and a small traveling aquarium of live fish, all wearing white scarf’s in honor of the man who perished rather than eat his fellow creatures.
The joy in life is to be used for a purpose. I want to be used up when I die.
The true joy in life is being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.
The true joy of life is being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one … being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown to the scrap heap … being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances.
Life is a flame that is always burning itself out, but it catches fire again every time a child is born
On Death:
Dying is a troublesome business there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one’s heart but death is a splendid thing –a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces.
My situation is a solemn one. Life is offered to me on condition of eating beefsteaks. But death is better than cannibalism. My will contains directions for my funeral, which will be followed not by mourning coaches, but by oxen, sheep, flocks of poultry, and a small traveling aquarium of live fish, all wearing white scarf’s in honor of the man who perished rather than eat his fellow creatures.
On Happiness:
Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind and indeed cannnot endure it. . . . Happiness is not the object of life life has no object it is an end in itself. . .
On Success:
Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.
The secret to success is to offend the greatest number of people.
On Honesty:
I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.
Absolute honesty is as absurd an abstraction as an absolute temperature or an absolute value.
On Learning:
A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.
On God:
The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.
Beware of the man whose god is in the skies.
Don’t think you can frighten me by telling me I am alone. France is alone and God is alone and what is my loneliness before the loneliness of my country and my God.
The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for Him there.
What God hath joined together no man shall ever put asunder God will take care of that.
When we know what God is, we shall be gods ourselves.
If you say that God is good, great, blessed, wise or any such thing, the starting point is this God is.
On Religion:
All the sweetness of religion is conveyed to the world by the hands of story-tellers and image-makers. Without their fictions the truths of religion would for the multitude be neither intelligible nor even apprehensible. . .
Religion is a great force – the only real motive force in the world but you must get a man through his own religion, not through yours.