Many people, especially young people, would like to be more independent and on their own. But it is very difficult and they suffer from feelings of isolation. I think that is one reason why young readers support my work.

I feel real good because it’s about representing the young world and how to uplift each other and how to push us to be greater and make sure we don’t fall or get trapped or get in trouble, you know what I mean. Stay focused, you know what I mean.

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

I’m not happy all the time, and I wouldn’t want to be because that would make me a shallow person. But I do try to find the good in everybody.

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.

I just have always felt that people don’t change, circumstances change.

In 1949, China declared independence – an event known in Western discourse as ‚the loss of China‘ in the U.S. – with bitter recriminations and conflict over who was responsible for that loss.

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

In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.

What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.

I’m aware that, whatever the circumstances, there will always be speculation about me.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do not wish to decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the opinions of men.

I’m trying to keep a level head. You have to be careful out in the world. It’s so easy to get turned.

I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.

It’s hard for anybody who’s been with me not to feel starved for affection when I’m making love to my ideas. Maybe it’s not meant for me to settle down and be married.

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance.

It’s very hard to find your own words – and you don’t actually exist until you have your own words.

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

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.

Your life must be a progression towards ownership – first mentally of your independence, and then physically of your work, owning what you produce.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true.

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

I feel impressed to counsel those engaged in personal challenges to do right. In particular, my heart reaches out to those who feel discouraged by the magnitude of their struggle.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

I think the healthy way to live is to make friends with the beast inside oneself, and that means not the beast but the shadow. The dark side of one’s nature. Have fun with it and you know, is to accept everything about ourselves.

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.

I think beating myself up sometimes and knowing I am not happy when I do it makes me work harder to do a good job.

I admire people who destroy themselves.

Often we can help each other most by leaving each other alone; at other times we need the hand-grasp and the word of cheer.

The answer to the problem of inequality is for the people who are fortunate enough to either have been gifted or deserved more to do everything they can to make the communities around them as strong as they possibly can.

Oh, I’ve always been very… Emotional. ‚Hypersensitive‘ is what they call it, I think.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!

I had to come from something, come from a place that was negative and positive but the majority of it is a negative place.

If we live a self-directed, self-motivated, self-centered life, always needing to get our own way, then we’re going to be miserable. In fact, many times we believe it’s our problems that are making us unhappy when, in reality, it’s because we’re focused on ourselves!

If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.

We are wiser than we know.

One cannot violate the promptings of one’s nature without having that nature recoil upon itself.

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don’t just be mad at him or her.

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

I have met 18 million youth, and each wants to be unique.

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

After 2014, we will support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future.

Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.

Our veterans who fall on hard times and find themselves without a home deserve more than just handwringing or kind words. They deserve real help that gets them back on their feet.

I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ‚Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.‘

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

Every single one of us has a few months here or there that feel like dark months.

When Nirvana became popular, you could very easily slip and get lost during that storm. I fortunately had really heavy anchors – old friends, family.

Chaos is a friend of mine.

I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.

It seems that when you have cancer you are a brave battler against the disease, but when you have Alzheimer’s you are an old fart. That’s how people see you. It makes you feel quite alone.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.

One friend in a lifetime is much, two are many, three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.

The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.