Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.

That is the real spiritual awakening, when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were. So, the person is still there, but one could almost say that something more powerful shines through the person.

For if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.

As a vulnerability researcher, the greatest barrier I see is our low tolerance for vulnerability. We’re almost afraid to be happy. We feel like it’s inviting disaster.

Real life is the life that’s in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you’re in relationship with.

I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.

Life is too short for long-term grudges.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

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.

It’s always a struggle growing up in Akron.

The brain is wider than the sky.

No one’s policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.

I’m trying to keep a level head. You have to be careful out in the world. It’s so easy to get turned.

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one’s heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.

You can have the platinum album. But, you know, when you still feel like you haven’t quite found your place in the world, it kind of gives a crazy offset.

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

If you don’t know your full-throttle history, the whole story of how you came to where you are, it’s kind of hard to put things together.

It’s easier to aim to please and say what others want to hear than to form an opinion and fight for it, even if it means taking a risk or losing your job.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

I think I could go away tomorrow. I’ve already accomplished something. It’s such a selfish business that sometimes I get sick of myself.

Guarding your heart and protecting your dignity are a little bit more important than clarifying the emotions of someone who’s only texting you back three words. I’ve learned that from trying to figure out people who don’t deserve to be figured out.

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

Whatever that means, however you got on that mountain, why not try to climb it? And do it in your own way.

I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

My life has been very full.

Vulnerability is basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

What goes up must come down.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

The more a person seeks security, the more that person gives up control over their life.

I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.

It’s only I have seen enough of it and the funny thing is now, I know that I’m skinny, because I know there are even smaller clothes in the store. I think I’m big, when I was big, I never thought about it.

Consider a tree for a moment. As beautiful as trees are to look at, we don’t see what goes on underground – as they grow roots. Trees must develop deep roots in order to grow strong and produce their beauty. But we don’t see the roots. We just see and enjoy the beauty. In much the same way, what goes on inside of us is like the roots of a tree.

Remember that life’s big changes rarely give advance warning.

You have to just make the choices you make in life. I made the choices I made because I believed they were right for me.

So many people are looking at what’s wrong, and I try to encourage them to look at what’s right in their life. A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

I will praise any man that will praise me.

I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.

My favorite thing in life is writing about life, specifically the parts of life concerning love. Because, as far as I’m concerned, love is absolutely everything.

I don’t believe in ‚thinking‘ old. Although I’ve transitioned through many bodies – a baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, mid-life and older adult – my spirit is unchanged. I support my body with exercise, my mind with reading and writing, and my spirit with the knowing that I am part of the Divine source of all life.

When I was 11, the whole world was closed to me. I just felt I was on the outside of the world.

Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.

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 know where I’m going and I know the truth, and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.

I love being busy.

Playing Etta James in the movie ‚Cadillac Records‘ really changed me. It was a darker character, and I realized that if anything is too comfortable, I want to run from it. It’s no fun being safe.