When people are very damaged, they can often meet the world with a kind of defiance.

Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.

I was born with a happy heart, and I try to keep a good attitude. It’s not true that I’m happy all the time because nobody is, and we all go through our things.

Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man.

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.

When you get into your car, shut the door and be there for just half a minute. Breathe, feel the energy inside your body, look around at the sky, the trees. The mind might tell you, ‚I don’t have time.‘ But that’s the mind talking to you. Even the busiest person has time for 30 seconds of space.

There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.

I got the stern end of the stick. It was kind of that iron fist. I am who I am today because of my mother.

Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take ten forward.

My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will, never, never surrender to what is right.

Hatred is inveterate anger.

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there… and still on your feet.

Life is too short for long-term grudges.

Going to a therapist is not something you do when you’re growing up as a street kid in Toronto.

People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgments, guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

If you keep on writing for three years, every day, you should be strong. Of course, you have to be strong mentally, also. But in the first place, you have to be strong physically. That is a very important thing. Physically and mentally you have to be strong.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

The only way you gain mental toughness is to do things you’re not happy doing. If you continue doing things that you’re satisfied and make you happy, you’re not getting stronger. You’re staying where you’re at. Either you’re getting better, or you’re getting worse. You’re not staying the same.

Give yourself more opportunities for privacy, when you are not bombarded with duties and obligations. Privacy is not a rejection of those you love; it is your deserved respite for recharging your batteries.

Exercise is really important to me – it’s therapeutic. So if I’m ever feeling tense or stressed or like I’m about to have a meltdown, I’ll put on my iPod and head to the gym or out on a bike ride along Lake Michigan with the girls.

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

I never read one hateful thing said about me by some 12 year old. So I got to live an actual life. And I’ve kept that mentality. Just because there’s a hurricane going on around you doesn’t mean you have to open the window and look at it.

Anyone can have a good day, but you have to be able to perform on a bad day.

We should learn to accept that change is truly the only thing that’s going on always, and learn to ride with it and enjoy it.

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

As a human being, anger is a part of our mind. Irritation also part of our mind. But you can do – anger come, go. Never keep in your sort of – your inner world, then create a lot of suspicion, a lot of distrust, a lot of negative things, more worry.

If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you – what used to be a tail wind is now a head wind – you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn’t a strategy.

No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius.

Put your leaders in stressful scenarios. Make them figure out solutions under pressure. See if you can make them frustrated, angry, and flustered, and then demand decisive leadership from them. They will be challenged at first, but they will get better over time.

Sometimes God will deliver you from the fire, and other times God will make you fireproof.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

Before you start a goal – let’s take care of our insecurities because they are going to surface when you put yourself in the crucible and you’re suffering.

If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.

The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger.

We will all fail in life, but nobody has to be a failure. Failing at a thing doesn’t make you a failure. You are only a failure when you quit trying.

We have a choice about how we take what happens to us in our life and whether or not we allow it to turn us. We can become consumed by hate and darkness, or we’re able to regain our humanity somehow, or come to terms with things and learn something about ourselves.

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.

There’s people that tried to celebrate when I lost that got nothing to do with it. That’s not the sign of a champion.

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.

I don’t worry about stress. I create it.

Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Happiness is the cessation of suffering.

Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

If it’s stress of things that we cannot control, what you have to do is you mitigate that stress as much as possible. You’ve planned, you’ve trained, you’ve done everything you can in your power to mitigate the stress that’s facing you. And then after that, there’s nothing you can do. So, you have to let that one go.

Well, there are some things that I just can’t get out of my head, and they start to annoy me after a while. Sometimes they’re of my own creation, as well – and they’re just as annoying. It’s not only other people’s ear worms that bug me, it’s my own, as well.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

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.

Laughter heals all wounds, and that’s one thing that everybody shares. No matter what you’re going through, it makes you forget about your problems. I think the world should keep laughing.

Hatred is self-punishment.

We may define therapy as a search for value.

Dread, which is closely related to fear, steals the ability to enjoy ordinary life and makes people anxious about the future. It keeps them from looking forward to the next day, the next month, or the next decade.

I was very depressed when I was 19… I would go back to my apartment every day and I would just sit there. It was quiet and it was lonely. It was still. It was just my piano and myself. I had a television and I would leave it on all the time just to feel like somebody was hanging out with me.

I look like a casual, laid-back guy, but it’s like a circus in my head.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.