JOHN TEMPLETON

I focus on spiritual wealth now, and I'm busier, more enthusiastic, and more joyful than I have ever been.

If we become increasingly humble about how little we know, we may be more eager to search.

The question is not is there a God, but is there anything else except God? God is everyone and each of us is a little bit.

I thought, I'm only going to be on this planet once, and only for a short time. What can I do with my life that will lead to permanent benefits?

If you are not egotistical, you will welcome the opportunity to learn more.

A doctor today would never prescribe the treatments my grandfather used in the Confederate Army, but a minister says pretty much the same thing today that a minister would have said back then.

It is nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

The correct description is that we try every day to become more humble when we talk about divinity, we try to realize how little we know and how open minded we should be.

The idea that an individual can find God is terribly self-centered. It is like a wave thinking it can find the sea.

Three of my children are medical doctors, they know at least a hundred times as much about your body as my grandfather knew, but they don't know much more about soul than he did.

Work at being a humble person.

It's self-centered to think that human beings, as limited as we are, can describe divinity.

Anybody who had come up with a new concept would have been under suspicion for being out of step with the tradition or out of step with the teachings of the church.

I'm really convinced that our descendants a century or two from now will look back at us with the same pity that we have toward the people in the field of science two centuries ago.

I believe all religions are becoming obsolete, clinging to ancient concepts.

I wouldn't call it radical; I would call it enthusiasm for progress.

Faith does not imply a closed, but an open mind. Quite the opposite of blindness, faith appreciates the vast spiritual realities that materialists overlook by getting trapped in the purely physical.

...Making people get over the concept that they've got the total proof. To get them to feel, 'Gee, I want to learn more. I want to hear anybody who can tell me something in addition to ways I already know about God or my spiritual principles.

The person who is willing to say yes to experience is the person who discovers new frontiers.

Success is a process of continually seeking answers to new questions.

Before this century is over, the Dow Jones Industrial Average will probably be over one million versus around 10,000 now. So for the long-term, the outlook is tremendously bullish if you buy stocks blindly to keep for a century.

Sell a stock only when you have found a new stock that is a 50% better bargain than the one that you hold.

The best investment with the least risk and the greatest dividend is giving.

Those who spend too much will eventually be owned by those who are thrifty.

If you buy all the stocks selling at or below two times earnings, you will lose money on half of them because instead of making profits they will actually lose money, but you will only lose a dollar or so a share at most. Then others will be mediocre performers. But the remaining big winners will go up and produce fabulous results and also ensure a good overall result.