And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

I hope not to define myself by suffering.

You do indeed have a past, but not now! And, yes, you have a future, but not now! You can consume your now with thoughts of ‚then‘ and ‚maybe,‘ but that will keep you from the inner peace you could experience.

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.

I knew I wasn’t going to be a rocket scientist – let’s not be fools – but I wasn’t going to be a bum.

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.

I have to keep improving myself and challenging myself.

What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts.

Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.

When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.

Mine is better than ours.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

In order to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limits that it discovers in itself – limits where minds meet, and in meeting, begin to exist.

I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven’t lived in vain.

Make a habit of two things: to help; or at least to do no harm.

If you’re not very clever you should be conciliatory.

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

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

Whatever you are, be a good one.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

The self is hateful.

You practice mindfulness, on the one hand, to be calm and peaceful. On the other hand, as you practice mindfulness and live a life of peace, you inspire hope for a future of peace.

It is important to remember yourself.

As a human being, anger is a part of our mind. Irritation also part of our mind. But you can do – anger come, go. Never keep in your sort of – your inner world, then create a lot of suspicion, a lot of distrust, a lot of negative things, more worry.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole.

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice… that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

People need motivation to do anything. I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation.

As you think, so shall you become.

Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.

Character is power.

A strong man doesn’t have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn’t match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.

It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.

We are not the sum of our possessions.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility.

I have wasted my hours.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

Meditation is difficult for many people because their thoughts are always on some distant object or place. One form of meditation is to label the thought as it appears and then choose to let it go.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

To do nothing is also a good remedy.

I really started writing music to challenge myself, to see what I could write.

It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

When anger rises, think of the consequences.

Religions get lost as people do.