A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

No, I’m not a French designer either. I’m from nowhere. I’m a European, old European is all I am.

We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives… inside ourselves.

Every man has a right to a Saturday night bath.

When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.

I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

I think I lived those years very impersonally. It was almost as though I had erected someone outside myself who was the president’s wife. I was lost somewhere deep down inside myself. That is the way I felt and worked until I left the White House.

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.

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.

I am, as a character, at times, a little overbearing. I recognize that.

I’ve watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it’s because they tend to believe all the hype that’s out there. I don’t think there’s that much hype about me.

I don’t think I’m such an amazing person who needs to be written about.

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.

I’ve had some dark nights of the soul, of course, but giving in to depression would be a sellout, a defeat.

I don’t need to be vindicated, and I don’t want attention.

It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, – superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.

Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

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.

There is such a thing as old emotional pain living inside you. It is an accumulation of painful life experience that was not fully faced and accepted in the moment it arose. It leaves behind an energy form of emotional pain.

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

Many people would be surprised that, in fact, I’m quite shy.

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

I am the center of attention in my job every single day; the thought of a wedding to me is exhausting. Why would I put myself through that?

I’m no leader; I’m a little humble follower.

Somewhere, everywhere, now hidden, now apparent in what ever is written down, is the form of a human being. If we seek to know him, are we idly occupied?

I’m not perfect.

When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.

If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

My moms always told me, ‚How long you gonna play the victim?‘ I can say I’m mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

We are in a far better position to observe instincts in animals or in primitives than in ourselves. This is due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to scrutinizing our own actions and to seeking rational explanations for them.

The question is not, ‚Do you have a problem?‘ The question is, ‚Does the problem have you?‘

There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day.

A woman has the age she deserves.

Now I am older, I understand we have to accept who we are.

Your body has space within you that cannot die.

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

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

I don’t mind telling a dark side.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

Ain’t nothing like a good cry.

I’m not talent. Not considered ‚talent‘ by Lifetime. I’d like to say I’m their savior, but that would be cocky.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

I need one of those baby monitors from my subconscious to my consciousness so I can know what the hell I’m really thinking about.

Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

Know that any and all thoughts that you have regarding your own skills, interests, and inclinations are valid. To reinforce the validity of your thoughts, keep them private. Tell yourself that they’re between you and God.

What’s the greater risk? Letting go of what people think – or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

I like to feel blonde all over.

Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.

I am not a self-help writer. I am a self-problem writer. When people read my books, I provoke some things. I cannot justify my work. I do my work; it is up to them to classify it, to judge.

Therapy? I don’t need that. The roles that I choose are my therapy.

Who can exhaust a man? Who knows a man’s resources?

Fear makes us feel our humanity.

All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.