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

Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.

It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.

I don’t do things for the response or for the controversy. I just live my life.

We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.

I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‚cos that’s just… that’s just telling yourself a lie.

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

It’s a very strange thing being recognized or looked upon as someone special.

He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

Buddhism teaches us not to try to run away from suffering. You have to confront suffering. You have to look deeply into the nature of suffering in order to recognize its cause, the making of the suffering.

I’m not generally a sensitive person, but I tend to be more sensitive toward others and what they’re going through. I don’t know if that’s the healthiest thing, but it’s the truth.

The stories are not autobiographical, but they’re personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I’ve learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.

I don’t make people bend over backwards, and I don’t like that in people. I am definitely no diva.

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.

I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.

I am not the humblest person in the world. I admit that.

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.

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’ve noticed a terrible thing, which is I will agree to anything if it’s far enough in the future.

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.

I am sure there’s going to be times when I do things wrong that no one’s going to like and everyone’s going to think I’m terrible and rubbish but I know I’m going to go through those times, and it’s just about understanding that that’s going to happen.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.

Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Our heart glows, and secret unrest gnaws at the root of our being. Dealing with the unconscious has become a question of life for us.

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

It’s easy to forget who you are.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

I’m an emotional person. Sometimes I can’t help it.

It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.

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.

I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.

I’ve never professed to be anything but an average student.

I have practically no private life. I’m already used to this and ready for it. Yes, sometimes it is hard, but it is the choice I made.

My goal was never to make Facebook cool. I am not a cool person.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

The thing about the truth is, not a lot of people can handle it.

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

Such as we are made of, such we be.

The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession.

Sometimes, I want to talk on a song and be angry, because I am angry. Then there’s always a part of me that remembers that this record lives past my being angry, and so do I really want to be angry about that? Is that feeling going to have longevity?

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation. But I’m working on the foundation.

There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

When you cease to exist, then who will you blame?

It is only to the individual that a soul is given.

Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.

Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries.