Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life. It should be something useful, something good.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

Remember you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.

The deepest desire of the human spirit is to be acknowledged.

If we’re going to bring out the best in people, we, too, need to sow seeds of encouragement.

I want to appeal to everyone. Because I’m not saying I’m the best, but we the best.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

I know what I believe, I know what I want to do, and I’m just comfortable saying it, and laying it out there.

Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.

I like working. That’s when I’m feeling my best. And the people around me know that. My wife knows that.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

When I was very young I was sort of floored by the fact that my mother and my father and everyone I knew was going to die one day, and myself too. I had a sort of a philosophical crisis. I couldn’t believe that we were mortal.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

To me, constructive criticism is when people take ownership of their ideas. That’s why I don’t listen to anything that’s anonymous. But it’s hard; when there’s something hurtful out there, I still want to read it over and over and memorize it and explain my point of view to the person.

I’m stupid, I’m ugly, I’m dumb, I smell. Did I mention I’m stupid?

I thank God I’m in a position where I can pick and choose – there are some roles I don’t play.

I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.

I’m concerned that my technical skills have advanced to the point where I can get closer to what I’m aiming for, which is not such a good thing.

I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.

I always keep my guard up with guys and I guess that can get in the way sometimes. I can make them go through hell.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

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

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Almost everybody will listen to you when you tell your own story.

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn’t.

Pride is an independent, me-oriented spirit. It makes people arrogant, rude and hard to get along with. When our heart is prideful, we don’t give God the credit and we mistreat people, looking down on them and thinking we deserve what we have.

For an author, the nice characters aren’t much fun. What you want are the screwed up characters. You know, the characters that are constantly wondering if what they are doing is the right thing, characters that are not only screwed up but are self-tapping screws. They’re doing it for themselves.

I kinda live where I find myself.

Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep.

It used to be the case, like you’d switch jobs, and then maybe you wouldn’t keep in touch with all the people that you knew from that old job, just because it was too hard. But one of the things that Facebook does is it makes it really easy to just stay in touch with all these people.

I do believe in self-help.

If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.

A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still: you must not want to see everything.

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

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.

Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I’m talking to people. It doesn’t always work, and one shouldn’t always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation.

I never let schooling interfere with my education.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

My number one thing? Don’t overleverage yourself. Don’t say you can do something when you really can’t.

I believe that every person is born with talent.

I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.

A leader who confines his role to his people’s experience dooms himself to stagnation; a leader who outstrips his people’s experience runs the risk of not being understood.

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.

Is fear preventing you from taking action? Acknowledge the fear, watch it, take your attention into it, be fully present with it. Doing so cuts the link between the fear and your thinking. Don’t let the fear rise up into your mind. Use the power of the Now. Fear cannot prevail against it.

Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on.

I’ve had no problem harnessing anger.

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don’t speak well of yourself.

Only you can control your future.

I never deny. I never contradict. I sometimes forget.

When you are full of pride on the inside, it makes you stiff, stubborn, and creates strife with others.

Silence speaks so much louder than screaming tantrums. Never give anyone an excuse to say that you’re crazy.

Love is a state of being.

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.