Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man’s task.

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

The whole universe is contained within a single human being—you.

There are only two kinds of people, those who accept dogmas and know it, and those who accept dogmas and don't know it.

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages.

You must try to observe yourself more and more objectively, to look at everything in yourself as though another person.

Being aware of a single shortcoming within yourself is far more useful than being aware of a thousand in someone else!

Appearance rules the world.

It doesn't matter how smart you are unless you stop and think.

Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

To criticize is to appreciate, to appropriate, to take intellectual possession, to establish in fine a relation with the criticized thing and to make it one's own.

Intelligent people tend to have less friends than the average person. The smarter you are, the more selective you become.

Your body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.

It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance.

Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.

What is a man in nature? Nothing in relation to the infinite, everything in relation to nothing, a mean between nothing and everything.

Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever.

Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression, but say, “Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are and what you represent. Let me try you.”

You are the only person who thinks in your mind. You are the power and authority in your world.

The truth has no defense against a fool determined to believe a lie.

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

The past is memory. The future is imagination. All that exists is now.

Only when we realize that there is no eternal, unchanging truth or absolute truth can we arouse in ourselves a sense of intellectual responsibility.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.