My weak spot is laziness. Oh, I have a lot of weak spots: cookies, croissants.

People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

Overall there’s going to be things I’m not great at.

If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people’s opinions will rush in from all quarters.

I was ashamed to admit I was hipped to the idea of acting. That’s why I started in with the props.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

The self is hateful.

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.

Find out who you are. And do it on purpose.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

I’m very, very serious – I’m serious enough not to take myself too seriously. That means I can be completely wedded to the moment. But when I leave that moment, I want to be completely wedded to the next moment.

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.

The single most powerful thing I can be is to be myself.

Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live.

Little things affect little minds.

The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.

My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts. Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual beings without label is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Few men would dare to read their own autobiography if all their deeds were recorded in it; few can look back upon their entire career without a blush.

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

If something can corrupt you, you’re corrupted already.

Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.

It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.

We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.

Your body has space within you that cannot die.

The problem with me, as far as getting married and having a family, is that my comedy is so important to me. So I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good a dad as my dad.

Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.

Success is always dangerous, and we need to be alert and avoid becoming the victims of our own success. Will we influence the world for Christ, or will the world influence us?

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

When you are full of pride on the inside, it makes you stiff, stubborn, and creates strife with others.

I’m an emotional person.

When I grew up, the Devil was a reason why I had a headache or the Devil was the reason I got mad today. We always blamed the Devil. I think today when I say the Enemy, I like to make it broader. Sometimes the Enemy can be our own thoughts.

Remember, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Unrestrained liberalism only makes the strong stronger and the weak weaker and excludes the most excluded.

I knew that I was ‚interesting‘ at 18 because I was aware that I could get away with doing things on stage.

I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that sometimes I was fooling somebody; I don’t know who or what, maybe myself.

At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.

We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are – that is the fact.

I don’t have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.

If anything is certain, it is that I myself am not a Marxist.

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

I think I’ve developed, as many people do, this sense of, ‚Don’t say the wrong thing, or else people will point at you and laugh.‘

I’m not intelligent. I’m not arrogant. I’m just like the people who read my books. I used to have a jazz club, and I made the cocktails and I made the sandwiches. I didn’t want to become a writer – it just happened.

Don’t make me into this airy-fairy, moralist, idealist because I’m not.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

Anger is certainly a kind of baseness, as it appears well in the weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns: children, women, old folks, sick folks.

I have a hard time figuring out what kind of box to put me in, too, because I don’t know exactly what’s going on around me or why. But I need to stay outside of boxes because then I can look at what’s inside of them without being part of them.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so.

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.

I am not a particularly thick-skinned person.

Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.