Spiritual people don’t float around all day on clouds of glory; they live in the real world and deal with real issues in real ways.

I have always believed in God.

I’m not critic-proof, and I still take it personally, but I take it less personally now.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something’s not good enough, and I won’t stop until I feel like I’ve made it. I’m never satisfied.

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.

The just is close to the people’s heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

Pray, and let God worry.

I’ve done many ads because that’s my new career. It’s an inspiring extension for my mind.

I would like to fly in space. Absolutely. That would be cool. I used to just do personally risky things, but now I’ve got kids and responsibilities, so I can’t be my own test pilot. That wouldn’t be a good idea. But I definitely want to fly as soon as it’s a sensible thing to do.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

I was raised in a family where vulnerability was barely tolerated: no training wheels on our bicycles, no goggles in the pool, just get it done. And so I grew up not only with discomfort about my own vulnerability, I didn’t care for it in other people either.

To say that Christ is the term and motive force of evolution, to say that he manifests himself as ‚evolver,‘ is implicitly to recognize that he becomes attainable in and through the whole process of evolution.

I thank God I’m myself and for the life I’m given to live and for friends and lovers and beloveds, and I thank God for knowing that all those people have already paid for me.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

I’m sure I’ve changed my mind about something. Inevitably, when we grow up – as we get more experience and wiser. Well, I’ve changed my mind about some food that I didn’t like when I was young.

We do not pray to God to instruct Him as to what He should do; neither for a moment must we presume to dictate the method of the divine working.

I think Bible principles are principles for life.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

Good intentions never change anything. They only become a deeper and deeper rut.

Every spirit makes its house, and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant.

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.

I’ve never been a jealous person, and I’ve never felt built up by someone else’s failure – that’s a cheap thrill.

For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.

Only God can look at somebody’s heart.

I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life – that is to say, over 35 – there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

I do not doubt that we would become more useful if we praised God more, and others would join us, for they would see that God has blessed us.

I still consider it a summer job, though. So, I try to maintain that summer job as long as I can. But it’s exciting to be able to have the opportunity to do things I always dreamed of as a kid.

Why regret anything? Where does it get you to regret anything you’ve ever done in your life? It gets you nowhere. It’s a pathetic emotion that you can wallow in.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

People just overshoot trying to find God. They’re going outside and trying everything. They don’t realize that it’s right inside themselves.

It’s true my father abused me and didn’t love and protect me the way he should have, and at times it seemed no one would ever help me and it would never end. But God always had a plan for my life, and He has redeemed me.

So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.

I’m afraid to fail again.

It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

Only God who made us can touch us and change us and save us from ourselves.

True wealth is not of the pocket, but of the heart and of the mind.

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.

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?… It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.

Luckily for me, people don’t scream at me that much in my everyday life.

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

You can’t put your feet on the ground until you’ve touched the sky.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.

In the real world, children love me.

The hardest thing for – not only an artist but for anybody to do is look themselves in the mirror and acknowledge, you know, their own flaws and fears and imperfections and put them out there in the open for people to relate to it.

The things that transfixed you as a child, that you found most exciting was not a passing fancy, but a message about what you’re supposed to do.

People tend to play in their comfort zone, so the best things are achieved in a state of surprise, actually.

The essential lesson I’ve learned in life is to just be yourself. Treasure the magnificent being that you are and recognize first and foremost you’re not here as a human being only. You’re a spiritual being having a human experience.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

Relationships are the hallmark of the mature person.

A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.

Hate has no place in the house of God.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

When I was younger, I was testing myself and questioning everything, but now it’s less about that and more about these are the years of my life with my family.

Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so.