The idea of going to school and getting a job is the most destructive one in your brain.

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.

It is impossible to underrate human intelligence – beginning with one’s own.

If I can be a leader, I will.

Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.

I realize I don’t do a very good job in keeping up to date, but I try to.

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don’t just be mad at him or her.

Each time we cooperate with God, we take one more giant step forward. Because when God asks us to change, it means that He always has something better to give us – more freedom, greater joy, and greater blessings.

Sometimes I wish I had taken the Bob Dylan route and sang songs where my voice would not go out on me every night, so I could have a career if I wanted.

I think of myself more as a sportsman than I do an artist.

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

I know that I came into the world with what I call ‚big dharma‘ – with a blueprint to teach self-reliance and a positive loving approach to large numbers of people all over the globe. I am ever so grateful for the circumstances of my life that allowed me to be pretty much left alone and to develop as I was so intended in this incarnation.

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

I absolutely want to have a career where you make’em laugh and make’em cry. It’s all theater.

Learn to say ‚no‘ to the good so you can say ‚yes‘ to the best.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.

I feel like whatever you’ve done in your career, good or bad, it’s nothing but preparation for the big events to come.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

Whether happiness may come or not, one should try and prepare one’s self to do without it.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous – is changed by it.

The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

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.

You don’t read in your own field. You read in that field when you’re young, so that you can learn.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

Mastery, I learned, was not something genetic, or for a lucky few. It is something we can all attain if get rid of some misconceptions and gain clarity as to the required path.

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it’s very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.

I hardly went to school.

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.

Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.

I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.

I’ve always been really, really aware of my insecurities – really, really aware. I never developed that thick skin that keeps you from letting things get to you.

Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good.

Through my education, I didn’t just develop skills, I didn’t just develop the ability to learn, but I developed confidence.

All cruelty springs from weakness.

We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.

To be a monk is to have time to practice for your transformation and healing. And after that to help with the transformation and healing of other people.

You don’t go to Notre Dame to learn something; you go to Notre Dame to be somebody.

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.

People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am content with knowing, if only I could know.

It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

I have always had this view about the modern education system: we pay attention to brain development, but the development of warmheartedness we take for granted.

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

Throughout my 20s and early 30s, I had jobs that I loved. I worked in city government. I ran a youth organization. I served as an associate dean at a university. And I couldn’t imagine how a baby would fit into all of that.

Train up a child in the way that he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

I am just one human being.

I’m a working-class person, working with class.

If you can’t read, it’s going to be hard to realize dreams.

To do your best is no longer good enough. We now have to do the seemingly impossible.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!