Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not.

Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not.

True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.

True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.

Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open.

Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open.

There is no self-delusion more fatal than that which makes the conscience dreamy with the anodyne of lofty sentiments, while read more

There is no self-delusion more fatal than that which makes the conscience dreamy with the anodyne of lofty sentiments, while the life is groveling and sensual.

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the read more

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the sky.

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, read more

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.

My own idea is that these things are as piffle before the wind.

My own idea is that these things are as piffle before the wind.

You have to block everything out and be extremely focused and be relaxed and mellow too.

You have to block everything out and be extremely focused and be relaxed and mellow too.

Never assume, for it makes an ASS out of U and ME.

Never assume, for it makes an ASS out of U and ME.