"Trade your secrets and become who you are."

"Experience is a great advantage. The problem is that when you get the experience, you're too damned old to do anything about it."

"We always prefer war on our terms to peace on someone else's."

"Before a diamond shows its brilliancy and prismatic colors it has to stand a good deal of cutting and smoothing."

"The only thing worse than the fear of death is the fear of a wasted life."

"Ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle, but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting."

"Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke."

"The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry."

"The odds against there being a bomb on a plane are a million to one, and against two bombs a million times a million to one. Next time you fly, cut the odds and take a bomb."

"Years ago my mother said to me, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant."

"All of us could take a lesson from the weather, it pays no attention to criticism."

"The sum of all human wisdom is contained in these two words: Wait and Hope."