Accept the terrible responsibility of life with eyes wide open.

It is my responsibility that I must make demonstrative efforts to reach out to every citizen of the country.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Helped are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.

I often say to people that producing is the best-paid form of cowardice. When you produce things, you almost always get credit if it’s a good record, but you hardly ever get the blame if it’s not! You don’t really take responsibility for your work.

No poet or orator has ever existed who believed there was any better than himself.

I don’t believe in ‚thinking‘ old. Although I’ve transitioned through many bodies – a baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, mid-life and older adult – my spirit is unchanged. I support my body with exercise, my mind with reading and writing, and my spirit with the knowing that I am part of the Divine source of all life.

There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.

Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.

When you take your attention into the present moment, a certain alertness arises. You become more conscious of what’s around you, but also, strangely, a sense of presence that is both within and without.

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don’t speak well of yourself.

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.

Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.

It is easier to be critical than correct.

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

The relationship to one’s fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one’s striving.

He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book.

There’s room for role models who make mistakes.

Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success.

After 2014, we will support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future.

Confront a corpse at least once. The absolute absence of life is the most disturbing and challenging confrontation you will ever have.

I mean we all need a second chance sometimes.

The thing about delirium is you think it’s great, but it actually isn’t.

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

Old age is just a record of one’s whole life.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Politics, according to the Social Doctrine of the Church, is one of the highest forms of charity, because it serves the common good. I cannot wash my hands, eh? We all have to give something!

I am not stupid. I am a very bright guy. I know that in the fighting game, you get people who get brain damage and do themselves long-term harm.

If you try to protect yourself from pain, it becomes a stone in your heart. But the more you learn to face things, the more likely that stone can become a pearl.

You can never get enough of what you don’t want.

Enjoy the satisfaction that comes from doing little things well.

The loss of life will be irreplaceable.

He not busy being born is busy dying.

I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

What sweetness is left in life, if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun. A true friend is more to be esteemed than kinsfolk.

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

I think that all people who feel that there is injustice in the world anywhere should learn as much of it as they can bear. That is our duty.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

Reproach is shame, blame, disgrace, disapproval and a disrespectful attitude toward yourself. When you’re under reproach, your behavior shows it.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do?

The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.

Not many people come through esophageal cancer and live to talk about it, or not for long.

Man, wear your seat belts. That’s all I can tell everybody. You never know.

People who don’t like my work say that the connections seem too arbitrary. But that’s how life is.

In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.

My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.

Never marry someone in hope that they’ll change later.