A famously wise old man in a village was once asked how he came by his wisdom. "I got it from my good judgment," he answered. And where did his good judgment come from? "I got it from my bad judgment."

The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, 'I was wrong'.

It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, 'the greatest', but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.

By the time a man asks you for advice, he has generally made up his mind what he wants to do, and is looking for confirmation rather than counseling.

The lusts of the flesh can be gratified anywhere; it is not this sort of license that distinguishes New York. It is rather, a lust of the total ego for recognition, even for eminence. More than elsewhere, everybody here wants to be somebody.

Maturity begins when we're content to feel we're right about something without feeling the necessity to prove someone else wrong.

When we have "second thoughts" about something, our first thoughts don't seem like thoughts at all - just feelings.