If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.

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.

Be a force of love as often as you can and turn away negative thoughts whenever you feel them surface.

Because in a split second, it’s gone.

The situation the Earth is in today has been created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption. We consume to forget our worries and our anxieties. Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption is not the way.

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 love to put on lotion. Sometimes I’ll watch TV and go into a lotion trance for an hour. I try to find brands that don’t taste bad in case anyone wants to taste me.

We never look deeply into the quality of a tree; we never really touch it, feel its solidity, its rough bark, and hear the sound that is part of the tree. Not the sound of wind through the leaves, not the breeze of a morning that flutters the leaves, but its own sound, the sound of the trunk and the silent sound of the roots.

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

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.

When you stop caring what people think, you lose your capacity for connection. When you’re defined by it, you lose our capacity for vulnerability.

Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.

Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.

The purpose of a vacation is to have the time to rest. But many of us, even when we go on vacation, don’t know how to rest. We may even come back more tired than before we left.

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

If a man be gloomy let him keep to himself. No one has the right to go croaking about society, or what is worse, looking as if he stifled grief.

Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

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

My body is weird. I wake up when the sun comes up, and it’s hard for me to go to sleep. My thoughts just take over.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.

Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

If I can get my dress on, my weight is under control.

A lot of times, people feel that if they forgive the person who hurt them, then they will continue to take advantage of them or not take responsibility for what they did wrong.

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.

The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.

People have so much going on in their heads. I’m like, If you could write a song, you’d feel so much better!

Don’t program yourself to break down as you age with thoughts that decline is inevitable. Time may be passing for our bodies, but because they house our ageless souls, we never need to see ourselves as old and infirm.

His was a great sin who first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few hours.

The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.

Fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.

Nature abhors annihilation.

To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself.

Our present moment is a mystery that we are part of. Here and now is where all the wonder of life lies hidden. And make no mistake about it, to strive to live completely in the present is to strive for what already is the case.

Take time to gather up the past so that you will be able to draw from your experience and invest them in the future.

Have you not noticed that love is silence? It may be while holding the hand of another, or looking lovingly at a child, or taking in the beauty of an evening. Love has no past or future, and so it is with this extraordinary state of silence.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

When the negative thoughts come – and they will; they come to all of us – it’s not enough to just not dwell on it… You’ve got to replace it with a positive thought.

I’m crazy, but I’m not too crazy.

In Germany, they all thought I was a bit mental, very emotional.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

Let go of yesterday.

Sometimes I catch myself stooping, and whenever I am like that, I am sure something is not quite right.

He was so depressed, he tried to commit suicide by inhaling next to an Armenian.

Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.

As a shame researcher, I know that the very best thing to do in the midst of a shame attack is totally counterintuitive: Practice courage and reach out!

Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.

The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

The only difference between the sane and the insane is that the sane have the power to lock up the insane.

I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our food in that way we become grateful and when you are grateful, you are happy.

If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.

I don’t think I get that upset over things.

I know from personal experience how damaging it can be to live with bitterness and unforgiveness. I like to say it’s like taking poison and hoping your enemy will die. And it really is that harmful to us to live this way.