When ideas become gods, consciousness of harmony becomes devotion, humility, and hope.

Irony is a clear consciousness of an eternal agility, of the infinitely abundant chaos.

Versatility of education can be found in our best poetry, but the depth of mankind should be found in the philosopher.

Aphorisms are the true form of the universal philosophy.

Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet; especially not against their poetry.

Strictly speaking, the idea of a scientific poem is probably as nonsensical as that of a poetic science.

Novels are the Socratic dialogues of our time. Practical wisdom fled from school wisdom into this liberal form.

Wit as an instrument of revenge is as infamous as art is as a means of sensual titillation.

The main thing is to know something and to say it.

When reason and unreason come into contact, an electrical shock occurs. This is called polemics.

A priest is he who lives solely in the realm of the invisible, for whom all that is visible has only the truth of an allegory.

I am coming back to New York after five years, and it seems that psychics are taking over the city.

Learning has to come from doing, not intellectualizing.

It is the immigrant hordes who keep this country alive, the waves of them arriving year after year.... Who believes in America more than the people who run down the gangplank and kiss the ground?

Someday I'll wish upon a star And wake up where the clouds Are far behind me Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops that's where you'll find me

Run a hand through your hair, like the white boys do, even though the only thing that runs easily through your hair is Africa.

In Buddhism, compassion always goes with wisdom. Compassion without wisdom is not understood to be true compassion, and wisdom without compassion is not true wisdom.

The genius of the Republicans has been how they figured out how to so polarize the middle class that we vote against our own best interests.

I am not a wolf in sheep's clothing, I'm a wolf in wolf's clothing.

In those first few hours officially single again the world seems like it expands, suddenly bigger and more vast now that you have to get through it alone.

One can impose silence on sentiment, but one can not give it limits.