... to work, to work hard, to see work steadily, and see it whole, was the way to be reputable. I think I always respected a goodblacksmith more than a lady of leisure.

A great idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas come when the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world's ignorance and press for admission.

It seems to me that life is always undoing for us something that we have just laboriously done.

Out of my discomforts, which were small enough, grew one thing for which I have all my life been grateful, the formation of fixed habits of work.

The great law of denial belongs to the powerful forces of life, whether the case be one of coolish baked beans, or an unrequited affection.

A perfect marriage is like a pure heart ... those who have it are fit to see God.

Surely it is one of the simplest laws of taste in dress, that it shall not attract undue attention from the wearer to the worn.

A literary woman's best critic is her husband.

What an immense power over life is the power of possessing distinct aims.

What an immense power over the life is the power of possessing distinct aims. The voice, the dress, the look, the very motion of a person, define and alter when he or she begins to live for a reason.

Imagination is built upon knowledge.

It takes a long time to learn how to do something simple.

A car with a small hole in its fuel tank unattended to shall see its fuel draining little by little and it shall only be left in the middle of a long journey! So is life! Mind the small things!

If you become aware of a public self, you're in danger of becoming a very artificial person.

Ego is constantly attempting to acquire and apply the teachings of spirituality for its own benefit.

I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself.

And that's why people read comics, to get away from the way life works, which is quite cruel and unheroic and ends in death.

It was around the end of the '60s, when I began to compose sonic meditations. Before that I was doing a lot of reflecting on myself, and listening to long tones.

It is better to go bruised to heaven than sound to hell.

If you are unhappy, even the moon irritates you, sweet things nauseate, music disturbs. When you are calm and centered inside, noise is musical, clouds are magical, rain is liquid love.

People's love of sweets and guilty feelings about overindulgence are pretty universal.