If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers.

Great things are achieved only when we take great risks.

All religions must be tolerated ... every man must go to heaven in his own way. [Die Religionen müssen alle toleriert werden ... denn hier muss ein jeder nach seiner Fasson selig werden.]

The more I see of men, the better I like my dog.

Diplomacy without military might is like music without instruments.

Great advantage is drawn from knowledge of your adversary, and when you know the measure of his intelligence and character, you can use it to play on his weakness.

Every man has a wild beast within him.

A man, who can, in cold blood, hunt and torture a poor, innocent animal, cannot feel much compassion for the distress of his own species.

The greatest and noblest pleasure which we have in this world is to discover new truths, and the next is to shake off old prejudices.

No government can exist without taxation. The money must necessarily be levied on the people; and the grand art consists of levying so as not to oppress.

Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be relied upon to endure hardships in case of another war.

My heart is breaking, " she says. "I want to be strong for you right now but the thought of you leaving is killing me inside.

In a society as broken as ours, "antisocial" behavior is the only behavior worth defending.

Whatever experiences we may come across in our spiritual journey we are not any of those experiences but rather the one who is witnessing them, the pure awareness cognizing them without thought.

I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives.

Joy doesn't exist out in the world somewhere. Joy is an inside job.

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

When I was about seven, I started touring the globe as part of New York's La MaMa theater company - without my parents!

For me, it was all about working with an inspirational filmmaker.

The only time I went out was to go to bars at night and all the pictures were taken with a flash because there was no light at all. However now I'm very interested in light.

In literature, the ghost is almost always a metaphor for the weight of the past. I don't believe in them in the traditional sense.