Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.

I’m not looking for sympathy at all.

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.

‚Your Erroneous Zones’ was the book that went over the top simply because I believed in it so much.

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

I believe that every person is born with talent.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

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

If a person doesn’t change, there’s something really wrong with him.

Never confuse motion with action.

It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.

And, honestly, if somebody wants to criticize me for not being a trainwreck, that’s fine with me!

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

If we are to be happy, we must first react against our tendency to follow the line of least resistance, a tendency that causes us either to remain as we are, or to look primarily to activities external to ourselves for what will provide new impetus to our lives.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.

I suppose my best attribute, if you want to call it that, is sincerity. I can sell sincerity because that’s the way I am.

I have made the mistaken assumption – and I will attempt to be better at this – of thinking that because somebody is on Twitter and is attacking me that it is open season. And that is my mistake.

Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you have blundered.

A Religion of Evolution: that, when all is said and done, is what Man needs ever more explicitly if he is to survive and ‚superlive,‘ as soon as he becomes conscious of his power to ultra-hominize himself and of his duty to do so.

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

When I started my last business, I didn’t receive a paycheck for 13 months. The average person can’t handle that pressure.

You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

My pride fell with my fortunes.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Even if you have a terminal disease, you don’t have to sit down and mope. Enjoy life and challenge the illness that you have.

I feel real good because it’s about representing the young world and how to uplift each other and how to push us to be greater and make sure we don’t fall or get trapped or get in trouble, you know what I mean. Stay focused, you know what I mean.

Dressing up is a bore. At a certain age, you decorate yourself to attract the opposite sex, and at a certain age, I did that. But I’m past that age.

I’m not critic-proof, and I still take it personally, but I take it less personally now.

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.

Mental toughness is a lifestyle. It’s something that you live every single day of your life. When I was growing up, I was a lazy kid. I was a lazy kid, and everybody goes, ‚How did you get to where you’re at today? How did you get to where you’re running 200 miles at one time in 39 hours? Being so disciplined?‘

I liked school, but I used to dread those moments when the teacher would call me up to give an oral report. I forced myself to deal with it and not dwell on the class in front of me – to keep a straight face, give the report and concentrate on getting it right. That’s normally how I perform. That’s how I am.

You have to be tough and have a lot of faith.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

To deal with individual human needs at the everyday level can be noble sometimes.

I don’t want to be an action star, an action star’s life is so short. I want my life to get longer, I want my career to get longer.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.

I’m not as goal obsessed as I am process obsessed.

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.

One of the huge imbalances in life is the disparity between your daily existence, with its routines and habits, and the dream you have within yourself of some extraordinarily satisfying way of living.

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.

The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head – chemo-brain they call it. It’s awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it’s so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

He who gives away shall have real gain. He who subdues himself shall be free; he shall cease to be a slave of passions. The righteous man casts off evil, and by rooting out lust, bitterness, and illusion do we reach Nirvana.