A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

I think any life can be interesting, any surroundings can be interesting. I don’t think I could have been so brave if I had been living in a town, competing with people on what can be called a generally higher cultural level.

The only passion that guides me is for the truth… I look at everything from this point of view.

I’m a pretty good winner. I’m a terrible loser. And I rub it in pretty good when I win.

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

Belief creates the actual fact.

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.

Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, uses that something to support their own existence.

Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event.

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.

When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.

Never be lucid, never state, if you would be regarded great.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.

Being happy is a matter of personal taste.

Life must be lived as play.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.

Our intention creates our reality.

In my entire life, any time I’ve ever lost something, I’ve gotten something even better going around the next corner. It’s like one door closes and another door opens. As long as I can walk through the produce section in every grocery store in this country and eat the grapes that they’re going to throw away, I know I can be fine.

The common question that gets asked in business is, ‚why?‘ That’s a good question, but an equally valid question is, ‚why not?‘

You just want something else that someone else has, but that doesn’t mean what you have isn’t beautiful, because people always want what you have, and you always want what they have – no one is ever 100 per cent like, ‚Yes, I’m the bomb dot com – from head to toe!‘

Once you begin to fall off the track and believe you breathe different air to everyone else, you’re doomed; you’re finished.

I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.

Conversion is not my intention. Changing religion is not easy. You may develop some kind of confusion or difficulties.

The idea is to try to give all the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another.

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

The more you seek security, the less of it you have. But the more you seek opportunity, the more likely it is that you will achieve the security that you desire.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.

Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.

I have found out in later years that we were very poor, but the glory of America is that we didn’t know it then.

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.

When I see a story, I ask: is this something I’d like to be in? Is this something I’d like to see? And if I’d like to see it, would I like to tell it?

Everything isn’t political.

Applause is a receipt, not a bill.

Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.

My view is there’s no bad time to innovate.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

I like being able to be on the inside of music, rather than on the outside listening to it.

I can be almost terminally grief-stricken because things are so dire, but at the same time, there’s a real lightheartedness about just the recoverability of life, of how things change, how they’re not the same, ever again.

There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.

Thoughts are mental energy; they’re the currency that you have to attract what you desire. Learn to stop spending that currency on thoughts you don’t want.

My father wasn’t around when I was a kid, and I used to always say, ‚Why me? Why don’t I have a father? Why isn’t he around? Why did he leave my mother?‘ But as I got older I looked deeper and thought, ‚I don’t know what my father was going through, but if he was around all the time, would I be who I am today?‘

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?

The child inside of you knows how to take things as they come, how to deal most effectively and happily with everything and everyone it encounters on this planet. If you can recapture that childlike essence of your being, you can stay ‚forever young at heart.‘

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.

I’ll tell you one thing, since I’m married, single people look absolutely ridiculous to me.

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

I don’t think about that. I wasn’t a kid growing up saying one day I’ll get an Oscar and make a speech. That wasn’t on my mind. So what I do is the best work I can do.

I always have confidence, whether I miss four in a row or make four in a row, that the next one’s going in. To a coach, sometimes that might not make sense.

I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world – from religion to race.

One day it will be over, and I don’t care.

My favorite affirmation when I feel stuck or out of sorts is: Whatever I need is already here, and it is all for my highest good. Jot this down and post it conspicuously throughout your home, on the dashboard of your car, at your office, on your microwave oven, and even in front of your toilets!