It almost seems that if you can describe it, you can change it.
Optimism is the opium of the people.
Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test…consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.
In the mind of a woman for whom no place is home the thought of an end to all flight is unbearable.
The heaviest of burdens is simultaneously an image of life's most intense fullfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become. Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into new heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant. What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?
I feel a frantic desire to free myself. To start all over again and in another way.
Man can only be certain about the present moment. But is that quite true either? Can he really know the present? Is he in a position to make any judgment about it? Certainly not. For how can a person with no knowledge of the future understand the meaning of the present? If we do not know what future the present is leading us toward, how can we say whether this present is good or bad, whether it deserves our concurrence, or our suspicion, or our hatred?
Life is rough for a lot of people. Some people live in greater material circumstances than others, but life is rough for everybody.
Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.
If you go to Jamaica, you're going to these all-inclusive resorts where they're playing calypso and a bit of reggae or whatever. But if you go to Kingston, it's run-and-gun battles in the streets, it's abject poverty, it's incredible violence - and then also the best parties in the world. But if you're white, you can't really go. I'd rather know the real deal than be playing in the sand.
He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.