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

Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us… While what we call ‚our own life‘ remains agreeable, we will not surrender it to Him. What, then, can God do in our interests but make ‚our own life‘ less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?

Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston, I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, ‚Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.‘

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

Do everything as in the eye of another.

Choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude is going to determine how you’re going to live your life.

I spent years studying the teachings of Patanjali, and he reminded us several thousand years ago that when we are steadfast – which means that we never slip in our abstention of thoughts of harm directed toward others – then all living creatures cease to feel enmity in our presence.

A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.

Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.

Meditation is a state of mind which looks at everything with complete attention, totally, not just parts of it. And no one can teach you how to be attentive. If any system teaches you how to be attentive, then you are attentive to the system, and that is not attention.

I’m an expert typist. I learned in high school. I would close my eyes and just type without worrying about mistakes. I tried to penetrate my heart, and as I let my thoughts drift, things bubbled up to the surface.

When I was young, poverty was so common that we didn’t know it had a name.

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.

I really don’t pay attention to the outside world when I’m incarcerated, because being in prison is like being in a different world. So I don’t pay attention to what’s going on outside of jail, because it’s all beyond my control.

An employer of mine back in the ’80s was kind enough to take me on after a rough patch, and it made a big difference in my life that I knew I was the sort of person who showed up on time. It’s a basic tell of character.

There is no unique picture of reality.

I’m thankful for the incredible advances in medicine that have taken place during my lifetime. I almost certainly wouldn’t still be here if it weren’t for them.

I woke up one day and thought: ‚I want to write a book about the history of my body.‘ I could justify talking about my mother because it was in her body that my body began.

Children are all foreigners.

I was fortunate and I was lucky that I had a couple of people in my life who cared about me. I had good, loving parents.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.

Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.

I never get too high on my stardom or what I can do.

Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.

It’s like, remember who you always were, where you came from, who your parents were, how they raised you. Because that authentic self is going to follow you all through life, so make sure that it’s solid so it’s something that you can hold on and be proud of for the rest of your life.

It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.

I don’t pretend to understand the Universe – it’s a great deal bigger than I am.

Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough.

I can’t tell anybody else how to run their life or their business, but I really believe I’ve got a good bead on myself.

Men must know their limitations.

Deficiency motivation doesn’t work. It will lead to a life-long pursuit of try to fix me. Learn to appreciate what you have and where and who you are.

Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

I am a simple Buddhist monk – no more, no less.

We’ve fallen into a trap of ever-widening orbits of contact, and there is a total disregard for the present moment.

The gigantic tension before the shooting of an arrow, and the total relaxation seconds later, is my way of connecting to the universe.

I actually don’t want a throne at all, because I don’t view myself as a queen; I view myself as one of my fans.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

The two things in the world we all share in this world are laughter and pain. We’ve all got problems. The levels of those problems vary, but we’ve all got problems. When you can take things that are painful and make them funny, that’s a gift – to you and your audience.

Remember, you can always stoop and pick up nothing.

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

As you get older, time speeds up but life slows down.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

Instead of blaming everyone and everything else for your problems, pray for God to help you take an inventory of what’s been on your mind so you can think about what you’ve been thinking about.

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

I don’t want to be too critical of what other people do, but when people go back to do the same thing that they did, I’m completely confused. I’m like, ‚Didn’t you make that movie already?‘ I’ve been very fortunate, and I’m well taken care of, so the least I can do is try to go forward.

One of the greatest lessons of my own life was learning to turn the inner rampage of hatred and anger toward my own father for his reprehensible behavior and abandonment of his family into an inner reaction more closely aligned with God and God-realized love.

Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image.

One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again – as I always am when I write.

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.

When you are angry or frustrated, what comes out? Whatever it is, it’s a good indication of what you’re made of.

What you see, but can’t see over is as good as infinite.

We love things we love what they are.