You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?

You want to be loved because you do not love; but the moment you love, it is finished, you are no longer inquiring whether or not somebody loves you.

You think that good means hating what is bad. What's bad is the hating mind itself

You tell me it's the institution… You'd better free your mind instead.

You taught me language; and my profit on't is, I know how to curse.

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.

You take it all in. You let the pain of the world touch your heart and you turn it into compassion.

You special, miraculous, unrepeatable, fragile, fearful, tender, lost, sparkling ruby emerald jewel, rainbow splendor person.

You speak of Lord Byron and me — there is this great difference between us. He describes what he sees — I describe what I imagine. Mine is the hardest task.

You should not ask if you will succeed or not. That isn't what matters. The only thing that matters is your struggle to carry it further.

You should never play to win but so as not to lose. Think what moves will be quickest beaten, avoid making them, and make whatever move will take most time to beat. In learning any accomplishment, in controlling one's own conduct, and in governing a nation, the same rule applies.

You should meditate on death without thinking of anything else, like a mother whose only child has died.

You should eat to live; not live to eat. (Those who don’t work to live, live long – Yen Tsun, 53-24 BCE.)

You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad.

You say the Christian God is unequivocal, he is love. But what is more ambiguous than love?

You say that a good cause will even sanctify war! I tell you, it is the good war that sanctifies every cause!

You say I gave too much; I say too little. What I paid was my social body, my town body, my family body, and all my inherited jewels.

You rely on force; but it is not force that governs human affairs.

You protest, and with justice, each time Hitler jails an opponent; but you forget that Stalin and company have jailed and murdered a thousand times as many. It seems to me, and indeed the evidence is plain, that compared to the Moscow brigands and assassins, Hitler is hardly more than a common Ku Kluxer and Mussolini almost a philanthropist.

You prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom, even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.