It’s not an easy course. It’s not designed to be. We’re not here to get you in touch with your inner child.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

I came up from a difficult background.

Some people have a hard time getting rid of stuff. If that’s you, pray for God to give you the courage to get rid of things you don’t really need or things He wants you to give away. This will help keep your surroundings organized and clutter-free.

If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

The difference between us and them, between you and success, is not that you never fail, but it’s how you recover from those failures – is that you keep getting up time and time again. You figure out what you did wrong, and then you make it right. I say that to my kids every day.

He who angers you conquers you.

I don’t have any secrets I need kept any more.

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.

Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

Whenever I’m around some who is modest, I think, ‚Run like hell and all of fire.‘ You don’t want modesty, you want humility.

In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

Words are powerful; if you change your words, you can change your life.

I realized the other day that I’ve lived in New York longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf. I have never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say you get so sore at yourself you forget to hate your enemies.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

Modesty is the color of virtue.

A Religion of Evolution: that, when all is said and done, is what Man needs ever more explicitly if he is to survive and ‚superlive,‘ as soon as he becomes conscious of his power to ultra-hominize himself and of his duty to do so.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

When you are learning about a martial art, it is about respect.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

I give opinions, not advice.

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.

Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.

Now I am older, I understand we have to accept who we are.

Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future.

Self-actualized people are independent of the good opinion of others.

My life is not to be somebody else’s impact – you know what I mean?

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested – I’ll kind of throw myself into some area that I don’t completely know or understand, that I’m not adept at, so I’m forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There’s a good feeling that comes from that.

The fact is I am not having sex. But I feel absolutely ripe for the, what would you say? plucking?

I sometimes have a tendency to walk on the dark side.

I grew up in a funny way.

Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.

To know oneself, one should assert oneself.

Education doesn’t change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.

As a kid from Compton, you can get all the success in the world and still question your worth.

We learn martial arts as helping weakness. You never fight for people to get hurt. You’re always helping people.

I approach love differently now that I know it’s hard for it to work out.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

It’s really hard to guarantee things in life. I guarantee if you get up in the morning and you work out, and you work hard, you will have a better day – 100% guaranteed.

Don’t find fault, find a remedy.

To add value to others, one must first value others.

The superior man makes the difficulty to be overcome his first interest; success only comes later.

I’m giving all that I have in this life. I’m opening up my notebook, and I’m saying everything in there out loud.

The only shame is to have none.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.

I’m not a natural born performer.

I was not an anthropology student prior to the war. I took it up as part of a personal readjustment following some bewildering experiences as an infantryman and later as a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany. The science of the Study of Man has been extremely satisfactory from that personal standpoint.