I’m my own worst critic, and if I don’t pull off what I think I wanted to do in my head, then I won’t be a happy girl.

I realised a little bit to my astonishment that I can give a lecture for a thousand people, and there will be this tumultuous applause, so, you know, I have the feeling well, it can’t be all that bad.

What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.

People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don’t suffer anymore.

It’s not an easy course. It’s not designed to be. We’re not here to get you in touch with your inner child.

I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of my early life.

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.

Everything is generated through your own will power.

What we think, we become.

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

When you start to realise how much of what you’ve constructed of yourself is based on deception and lies, that is a horrifying realisation.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don’t mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.

We rarely confide in those who are better than we are.

Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

I could not do what I do, and teach a class, and never miss a deadline, never be late for anything if I was a lush, OK? I would really love to read a piece that said, ‚He is not a lush.‘ That would be fabulous, it would be a first, I could show it to people and say, ‚Look!‘

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

It’s certainly not wrong to want to be a better person. God gave us that desire.

If our condition were truly happy, we would not seek diversion from it in order to make ourselves happy.

I don’t look at my old work. I mean, they made nice books; the books were made without me, the one from last year and the one from this year. I – personally, I’m not interested in my own past. I’m only interested in today – perhaps tomorrow.

To make headway, improve your head.

I am not saying I am the best manager in the world. But I’m quite good.

I’m one of them guys that tries to make everything the best of the best, so sometimes I’m out of control with it.

People tend to think that life really does progress for everyone eventually, that people progress, but actually only some people progress. The rest of the people don’t.

It is only in our decisions that we are important.

A lot of stuff I do out of pure obsessiveness.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

I’m pretty positive, optimistic, so I always expect the best.

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.

It is a most delightful reflection that if I come to the throne of God in prayer, I may feel a thousand defects, but yet there is hope. I usually feel more dissatisfied with my prayers than with anything else I do.

Teamwork is so important that it is virtually impossible for you to reach the heights of your capabilities or make the money that you want without becoming very good at it.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.

I was a grade B housewife, maybe a B minus. But when I got time to write, I would be unable to finish a sentence. I had anxiety attacks. Partly it was a way of personifying the situation because I couldn’t breathe. I was surrounded by people and by duties. I was a housewife and the children’s mother, and I was judged on how I performed those roles.

The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win – you pass the test.

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

I don’t want to look sloppy, because then I feel sloppy.

People always say that you can’t please everybody. I think that’s a cop-out. Why not attempt it? ‚Cause think of all the people you will please if you try.

Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

I’m selfish.

I’m not critic-proof, and I still take it personally, but I take it less personally now.

It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

The authority you establish must emerge naturally from your character, from the particular strengths you possess.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.

Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has doubts about it himself.

Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.