Wisdom

Saying things are terrible does not automatically establish the reliability of your account. The habitual naysayer is no more to be trusted than the habitual cheerleader.

I know a better truth than yours. It is larger, roomier, more complex, and more authentic than any you will find in a single formulation or dictum or label or theory.

The hardest thing in the world is to see what is actually in front of you, unmediated by your own expectations, theories, and wishes about what should be there.

The most useful suggestion I can make is that you go on being students for the rest of your lives. Don't move to a mental slum.

This attitude of opposition is not justified as a strategy, as a means to an end, a way of changing the world. It is, rather, the best way of being in the world.

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.

Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.

To think for yourself — not narrowly, but rather as a mind — you must be able to talk to yourself: well, openly, and at length.

A good education in skepticism can help us to discover those bad guesses, and to destroy them with mockery and contempt.

I have seen the past, and it works.

The important thing is to miss as little as possible and to share as much.

Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger but it won't taste good.