Steve Martin on Wisdom Quotes

"It's not the gift of a tongue, it's the gift of a mind."

"The hardest thing is to be simple. It takes a lot of work to be simple and a lot of integrity to stay that way."

"A day without sunshine is like, you know, night."

"The mind is a strange place; it can build a prison out of nothing but thoughts and then wonder why it can't escape."

"The banjo is such a happy instrument. You can't play a sad song on the banjo—it always comes out sounding like a square dance. You have to be true to the instrument's nature."

"Melancholy is just a fancy word for the feeling that something vital is missing, even when you have everything."

"There is a profound difference between being alone and being lonely, but for a long time, I couldn't tell them apart."

"Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end."

"I used to think that if I reached the top, the anxiety would vanish. But the top is just a higher place to fall from."

"I wanted to be a philosopher, but I was too happy."

"The thing about depression is that it's a very slow process; it's not a sudden cliff, but a long, sloping hill into the dark."

"The mind is a wonderful thing, but it's also a trap."

"Eventually, you realize that the struggle is not a sign of failure, but a sign that you are still human."

"Mastery is the result of thousands of small, honest decisions made over a lifetime."

"I found that art was the only thing that could speak to the parts of me that words couldn't reach."

"Everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough."

"We are all just trying to find a way to make the inner life match the outer life without losing our minds."

"Artistic integrity is about knowing when to stop listening to the critics and start listening to the banjo."

"Loneliness is a power that we possess to give or take away, but often we just let it sit there and heavy our hearts."

"The void doesn't go away; you just learn to build a better bridge over it."