As a shame researcher, I know that the very best thing to do in the midst of a shame attack is totally counterintuitive: Practice courage and reach out!

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.

No one’s policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

At first, I was scared to show fear because you can never be sure how people will perceive you. But I dared myself to do that, to stand out. Now I’ll talk about being beaten up or robbed or making a stupid decision because of a girl or whatever.

A great hallmark of mental wellness is the ability to be in the present moment, fully and with no thoughts of being elsewhere.

Meditation is not following any system; it is not constant repetition and imitation. Meditation is not concentration.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

There’s certainly a side of me that isn’t completely… sane. Or completely ‚even‘ all the time. We all have our dark sides.

I say there’re no depressed words just depressed minds.

If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.

I don’t need therapy. I’m not going to see a therapist; comedy acts as my therapy. I put my problems out there. I talk about them. I talk about everything before anybody has a chance.

I think that’s why I put my energy into making music. That’s how I get my thoughts out, instead of being crazy all the time.

Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing.

Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.

I’m not a big fan of psychoanalysis: I think if you have mental problems what you need are good pills. But I do think that if you have thinks that bother you, things that are unresolved, the more that you talk about them, write about them, the less serious they become.

Pound’s crazy. All poets are. They have to be. You don’t put a poet like Pound in the loony bin.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path.

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.

I wish that the Indians believed me a god, for upon the report of an enemy’s valor oftentimes depends the success of a battle, and false reports have many times done as great things as true courage and resolution.

To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

I can get where some scientists would say comedians are crazy. What you have to understand: A lot of comedians are dealing with a dark passion. A lot of these are guys coming from a tumultuous life, including myself. Some people need outlets, a way to express yourself.

When I was in my teens I had issues with OCD.

In a disordered mind, as in a disordered body, soundness of health is impossible.

I try not to think about my life. I have no life. I need therapy.

We may define therapy as a search for value.

There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.

The mind of America is seized by a fatal dry rot – and it’s only a question of time before all that the mind controls will run amuck in a frenzy of stupid, impotent fear.

If you don’t feel safe as a child, you can’t learn.

I’ve often felt depressed; everyone feels depressed.

If I feel anxious every time someone is staring at me, well, I can’t control what they stare at, but my reaction is, I’m just not going to go outside the house. I’m going to stay in and chill. And when I do go out, I understand what comes along with that.

We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

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

Paranoia is just another word for ignorance.

We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression.

Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.

I think Buddhism should open the door of psychology and healing to penetrate more easily into the Western world.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.

A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

I am in my own head most of the time.

An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

One man with courage is a majority.

Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.

The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.

O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!

Nine men in ten are would be suicides.

If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.

We want to do a lot of stuff; we’re not in great shape. We didn’t get a good night’s sleep. We’re a little depressed. Coffee solves all these problems in one delightful little cup.

Men walk this tightrope where any sign of weakness illicits shame, and so they’re afraid to make themselves vulnerable for fear of looking weak.

With my childhood, it’s a wonder I’m not psychotic. I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighborhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends.

When things are going bad, don’t get all bummed out. Don’t get startled; don’t get frustrated. If you can say the word ‚good,‘ guess what? It means you’re still alive. It means you’re still breathing.

Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver five minutes longer.

To be ashamed of one’s immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one’s morality.

The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtues consistently.