We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been.

A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‚Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?‘ We must always consider the person.

Our present moment is a mystery that we are part of. Here and now is where all the wonder of life lies hidden. And make no mistake about it, to strive to live completely in the present is to strive for what already is the case.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Don’t look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you’ll know you’re dead.

Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I’m the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House.

Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.

You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.

Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.

There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.

Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.

I love diversity.

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.

You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. It’s your call.

The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

Nothing can be by itself alone, no one can be by himself or herself alone, everyone has to inter-be with every one else. That is why, when you look outside, around you, you can see yourself.

Our DNA is as a consumer company – for that individual customer who’s voting thumbs up or thumbs down. That’s who we think about. And we think that our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience. And if it’s not up to par, it’s our fault, plain and simply.

There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment.

I believe everyone should have a good death. You know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. Because after all, tears are appropriate on a death bed. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop.

What a liberation to realize that the ‚voice in my head‘ is not who I am. ‚Who am I, then?‘ The one who sees that.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.

I try to live what I teach. A lot of things come against us in life, but we should try to find something to be grateful for, and see each day as a gift.

Why, if someone is good in one field can they not be accepted or given the slightest opportunity to express and be creative in other fields?

When I die, and people realize that I will not be resurrected in three days, they will forget me. That is the way it should be.

The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God – if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

It doesn’t matter who likes you or doesn’t like you, all that matters is that God likes you. He accepts you, he approves of you.

The big message of gospel is that you don’t have to keep fighting the universe; you can stop, and the universe is quite good to you. There is a loss of ego.

Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God’s final word on where your lips end.

If you are not living this moment, you are not really living.

He has committed the crime who profits by it.

Happiness can exist only in acceptance.

With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.

Your timeless self does not age and has no fear of the future. Contemplate your physical self and all its possessions, and practice laughing peacefully at it all.

Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the Earth are two separate entities, the Earth is only the environment. You are in the centre and you want to do something for the Earth in order for you to survive. That is a dualistic way of seeing.

My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.

I’m actually starting to like more and more people who have convictions that are unpopular.

Breathe in deeply to bring your mind home to your body. Then look at, or think of, the person triggering this emotion: With mindfulness, you can see that she is unhappy, that she is suffering. You can see her wrong perceptions. You can see that she is not beautiful when she says things that are unkind.

Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate… but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.

It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.

I thought I would try to be gay for a while, but I’m just more sexually attracted to women. But I’m really glad that I found a few gay friends, because it totally saved me from becoming a monk or something.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President.

The truth is that there is no actual stress or anxiety in the world; it’s your thoughts that create these false beliefs. You can’t package stress, touch it, or see it. There are only people engaged in stressful thinking.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.

Step with care and great tact, and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.

We all gonna die eventually from something or other, but don’t be a wimp. Put up a good fight.

You can’t stop everything from happening. But we’ve gotten to a point where we’re certainly trying. If a car doesn’t have four hundred air bags in it, then it’s no good.

First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.