A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

If you’re trying too hard to be the girl next door, you’re not going to be.

When it comes to everybody else’s thing and their lane and their timing, I’m never doing anything intentional to, like, come after somebody. That will always be my biggest mistake or anybody’s biggest mistake if that’s their intention.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

If somebody thinks they’re a hedgehog, presumably you just give ‚em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

A new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man’s heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

Sometimes when you make a film you can go away for three months and then come back and live your life. But this struck a much deeper chord. I don’t have the ability yet to speak about it in an objective.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off. In this respect my travels were very useful to me.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.

Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, ‚But how can it be like that?‘ because you will get ‚down the drain,‘ into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.

Sexuality is one of the ways that we become enlightened, actually, because it leads us to self-knowledge.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values – that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

The land created me. I’m wild and lonesome. Even as I travel the cities, I’m more at home in the vacant lots.

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

How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me.

Facts, like people, want to be free – and when they’re free, liberty is usually around the corner.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

I still learn, but I think it’s the best thing in life to have a kid.

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

I knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

Don’t talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.

My fans saw me get engaged, saw me make that woman my wife, me having kids, me divorcing, me talking about divorce before the divorce, me talking about my kids‘ reaction to that divorce.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Even as you make progress, you need the discipline to keep from backtracking and sabotaging the success as it’s happening.

At first, I was scared to show fear because you can never be sure how people will perceive you. But I dared myself to do that, to stand out. Now I’ll talk about being beaten up or robbed or making a stupid decision because of a girl or whatever.

Watch out for the joy-stealers: gossip, criticism, complaining, faultfinding, and a negative, judgmental attitude.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

I don’t have a problem with ageing – in fact, I embrace that aspect of it. And am able to and obviously am going to be able to quite easily… it doesn’t faze me at all.

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

I think everyone should be with who they love.

There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.

The Israelites‘ slavery in Egypt is the equivalent of our slavery to sin. God sent Moses to deliver them from bondage, and He sent Jesus Christ to set us free.

Listening to and understanding our inner sufferings will resolve most of the problems we encounter.

While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your ass.

Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live.

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

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

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

It was very lucky for me as a writer that I studied the physical sciences rather than English. I wrote for my own amusement. There was no kindly English professor to tell me for my own good how awful my writing really was. And there was no professor with the power to order me what to read, either.

I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children, I began to strive after self-control. There was endless difficulty in the task.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.

There’s room for role models who make mistakes.

It’s very important for Christians to be honest with God, which often, you know, God is much more interested in who you are than who you want to be.

To observations which ourselves we make, we grow more partial for th‘ observer’s sake.