Oscar Levant

There is no man living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.

I don’t like when there’s too much conversation because I’m shy and it makes me uncomfortable.

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

There is no truth. There is only perception.

You don’t need a rope to pinch a stranger’s butt.

A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.

A man must live like a great brilliant flame and burn as brightly as he can. In the end he burns out. But this is far better than a mean little flame.

If you keep your head in the sand, you don’t know where the kick’s coming from.

What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before–more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.

A man always has two reasons for what he does-a good one, and the real one.

Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.

Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.