Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

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

I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.

I can’t tell anybody else how to run their life or their business, but I really believe I’ve got a good bead on myself.

In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.

We’re so trendy we can’t even escape ourselves.

You might not have the things you want, but if you check carefully, you got all you need.

Fame doesn’t fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

I do not think psychoanalysis has a scientific basis. If we can’t explain why a cockroach decides to turn left, how can we explain why a human being decides to do something?

It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are… than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.

I don’t like it when people who are young act like they’re 40. That’s taking too much on. Putting up a shield and trying to act like you’re so mature or whatever – I don’t try to act mature. Some people might say I’m mature for my age, but it’s not something I’m trying to do, you know? I’m just me.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

People will try to bring you down, but you gotta go up.

I wonder how many decisions we make every day. I believe it’s probably hundreds. We decide whether or not to get out of bed, what we’ll eat, what we’ll do, what we’ll think about, what we’ll say… and on and on.

Buddhism teaches us not to try to run away from suffering. You have to confront suffering. You have to look deeply into the nature of suffering in order to recognize its cause, the making of the suffering.

The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men… We are who we are because they were who they were. It’s wise to know where you come from, who called your name.

When I was married, I definitely went through a lying period.

Society has always to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.

Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?

I really have had to swallow my own prejudice at times.

These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new.

Always say ‚yes‘ to the present moment… Surrender to what is. Say ‚yes‘ to life – and see how life starts suddenly to start working for you rather than against you.

My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable.

We’re all insecure, aren’t we? I’m not walking around like I’m macho man or anything.

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.

Your emotions are very unstable and should never be the foundation for direction in your life.

If you abandon the present moment, you cannot live the moments of your daily life deeply.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

I want to work; then, as my kids get older, I want to have adventures. I want to visit all their countries: learn and live inside all their cultures.

Don’t let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn’t go with it.

I don’t believe in ‚thinking‘ old. Although I’ve transitioned through many bodies – a baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, mid-life and older adult – my spirit is unchanged. I support my body with exercise, my mind with reading and writing, and my spirit with the knowing that I am part of the Divine source of all life.

We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.

Sometimes I catch myself stooping, and whenever I am like that, I am sure something is not quite right.

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

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me.

Forget the past.

As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I’m successful, I never feel like I’m anywhere. The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I’m never content.

Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

I liked his ability to deal with a lot of the negativity that surrounded him. Even though he was in a world that he didn’t want to be in, he still saw the bigger picture.

I never expected to be anybody important.

When you realize who you live for, and who’s important to please, a lot of people will actually start living. I am never going to get caught up in that. I’m gonna look back on my life and say that I enjoyed it – and I lived it for me.

I’ve been reckless, but I’m not a rebel without a cause.

I don’t mind people hating me, because it pushes me.

People who don’t know the true character of God – who don’t believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger – can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

I’m over being a pop star. I don’t wanna be a hot girl. I wanna be iconic. And I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I feel like I’m highly respected, which is more important than any award or any amount of records. And I feel like there comes a point when being a pop star is not enough.

I want to put a ding in the universe.

I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside.

Who shall measure the hat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?

Sometimes you need faith and victory spoken over your life. Words have created power. When you receive them into your spirit, they can ignite seeds of increase on the inside.

Only by contending with challenges that seem to be beyond your strength to handle at the moment you can grow more surely toward the stars.

Even the securest financial plan and the finest health coverage aren’t enough to hold us steady when the challenges come… We need something more, something deeper and unshakeable, something that will see us through life’s hard times.

That’s all I could ever hope for, to have a positive effect on women. ‚Cos women are powerful, powerful beings. But they’re also the most doubtful beings. They’ll never know – we’ll never know – how powerful we are.