Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

It seems like we wake up and it’s a race until you get to bed. It gets to you after a while and you think, ‚What the hell am I doing?‘

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

If I make a fool of myself, who cares? I’m not frightened by anyone’s perception of me.

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it’s the restaurant business.

Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

Forget the past.

I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.

I don’t like looking back. I’m always constantly looking forward. I’m not the one to sort of sit and cry over spilt milk. I’m too busy looking for the next cow.

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.

That is the real spiritual awakening, when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were. So, the person is still there, but one could almost say that something more powerful shines through the person.

I am getting to the point where the only love worth being in is the love worth singing about.

You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.

Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, ‚I’m not worthy of being written up in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth.‘ Timidity keeps people from their good. They are afraid to say, ‚Yes, I deserve it.‘

Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked: as I never was when I was not one.

On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit.

I still have mixed feelings about what growing up is – this thing that happens to everyone, so I’ve heard.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

When I was 50 years old, I actually decided to draw up a list of half a dozen things that I really hadn’t done very well, and I was going to make efforts to improve. One of them was skiing, and I really did become a very much better skier.

Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

The fact that you are willing to say, ‚I do not understand, and it is fine,‘ is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.

My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts. Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual beings without label is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity.

Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.

I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others.

Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.

What you are comes to you.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

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

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

My friends, there are no friends.

Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

Look at a book. A book is the right size to be a book. They’re solar-powered. If you drop them, they keep on being a book. You can find your place in microseconds. Books are really good at being books, and no matter what happens, books will survive.

We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.

The best of us must sometimes eat our words.

Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.

Change is always tough. Even for those who see themselves as agents of change, the process of starting a new thing can cause times of disorientation, uncertainty and insecurity.

Marines don’t know how to spell the word ‚defeat‘.

If you live only in one culture for the first 20 years of your life, you become conditioned without knowing it.

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested – I’ll kind of throw myself into some area that I don’t completely know or understand, that I’m not adept at, so I’m forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There’s a good feeling that comes from that.

These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

It’s important that we invest in America – literally. The terrorists wanted to destroy our economy, and we can’t let our system fall apart. We also have to invest in one another.

Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, content to dwell in decencies for ever.

This lady is not for turning.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

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

There are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, ‚That person I see is a savage monster;‘ instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do.

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

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

I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that sometimes I was fooling somebody; I don’t know who or what, maybe myself.