Ned Rorem Quotes

I've always felt that the truth is in the silence.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

There are questions I'm still not wise enough to answer, just wise enough to no longer ask.

Be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee and thy being.

I never did a single wise thing in the whole course of my existence, although I have written many which have been thought so.

Truth is the offspring of silence and meditation.

If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

They are so knowing, that they know nothing.

Contemplation and wisdom are highest achievements and man is not totally at home with them.

I'm the last one who would do self-analysis.

An intelligence test sometimes shows a man how smart he would have been not to have taken it.

I feel coming on a strange disease - humility.

People would be surprised by me if they knew I was humble.

I would rather be stupid than pretend to be intelligent.

I say this all the time: All I know is I know nothing at all.

↑ top up position down The fact that I suspect I'm an asshole means I probably am not, because a real asshole doesn't think he's an asshole, does he? Therefore, by realizing that I'm an asshole, I am in fact negating that very realization, am I not? Descartes's Asshole Axiom: I think I am; therefor I'm not one.

It's irrelevant to me if other people know who I am. I'm just, I'm really happy. It calms me down, too. If you're on top of an oilrig, fighting with politicians, or whatever - you need a bit of wisdom to realize that you're not always right, or that you're not always being reasonable, or you're not always listening.

Time is one's best friend, teaching best of all the wisdom of silence.

Fools laugh at others. Wisdom laughs at itself.

The mind sees the world as a thing apart, And the soul makes the world at one with itself. A mirror scratched reflects no image— And this is the silence of wisdom.

Even if I am but a pretender to wisdom, that in itself is philosophy.

Good nonsense is good sense in disguise.

We made a film about the need for silence and withdrawal... and here we are at the epicentre of noise and excitement. Life is full of surprises.