If you try to protect yourself from pain, it becomes a stone in your heart. But the more you learn to face things, the more likely that stone can become a pearl.

My life is mine to remember.

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.

Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

The truth is something that burns. It burns off dead wood. And people don’t like having the dead wood burnt off, often because they’re 95 percent dead wood.

Nearly all the things I do that are of any merit at all start off just being good fun, and I think I’m sort of building up to doing something else quite soon.

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.

I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that.

We’re not a fragile people. We’re not a frightful people. Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order as long as we do things his way. We don’t look to be ruled.

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will – his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.

Everyone has at least one story, and each of us is funny if we admit it. You have to admit you’re the funniest person you’ve ever heard of.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

It’s hard to practice compassion when we’re struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neuron disease, but it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I still could do. I’m happier now than before I developed the condition.

My work is the only ground I’ve ever had to stand on. To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation, but I’m working on the foundation.

The true identity theft is not financial. It’s not in cyberspace. It’s spiritual. It’s been taken.

It’s important that we invest in America – literally. The terrorists wanted to destroy our economy, and we can’t let our system fall apart. We also have to invest in one another.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

I don’t want to be an action star, an action star’s life is so short. I want my life to get longer, I want my career to get longer.

When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today.

To become ‚unique,‘ the challenge is to fight the hardest battle which anyone can imagine until you reach your destination.

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

Without being the most confident person in the world, I think I am the right person for Liverpool.

Needing to have things perfect is the surest way to immobilize yourself with frustration.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

In retrospect, I can see I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching about. Ha! Like, that sure made sense!

There are many victories worse than a defeat.

I’ve always done whatever I want and always been exactly who I am.

Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future.

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.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.

If I had a talent, it was for looking askew at everything, possibly more than my contemporaries. But I had to really push myself to be a writer.

Life is too short for long-term grudges.

I don’t live in the past at all; I’m always wanting to do something new. I make a point of constantly trying to forget and get things out of my mind.

If I am no longer disturbed myself, I will deal less with disturbed people, but I don’t regret having concerned myself with them because I think most of us are disturbed.

Somewhere deep down there’s a decent man in me, he just can’t be found.

The roots of the problems we face in the world, in our national life, and in our family and personal lives are spiritual.

While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your ass.

Deficiency motivation doesn’t work. It will lead to a life-long pursuit of try to fix me. Learn to appreciate what you have and where and who you are.

Hollywood is not suited for me, and I am not suited for it.

All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.

I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.