Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.

I’ve never been shy or secretive with the fact that if you walk into my life, you may be walking onto a record.

I was never really good at anything except for the ability to learn.

There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.

Fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.

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

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone – so far.

Going home helps the content.

I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

I’m working at trying to be a Christian, and that’s serious business. It’s like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy – it’s serious business.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

When I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. It’s your call.

The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.

My parents were dealing with evictions and repossessions and electricity getting shut off, and I just realized that I had to get it together.

It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.

The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.

I briefly did therapy, but after a while, I realised it is just like a farmer complaining about the weather. You can’t fix the weather – you just have to get on with it.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

People have so many hang-ups about how other people live their lives. People always want to keep you in a little box, or they need to label you and fix you in time and location.

When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.

Does anybody really think that they didn’t get what they had because they didn’t have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.

I have survivor’s curiosity, I guess.

One must marry one’s feelings to one’s beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one’s life.

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.

Have you ever asked yourselves what you are going to do when you grow up? In all likelihood you will get married, and before you know where you are, you will be mothers and fathers; and you will then be tied to a job, or to the kitchen, in which you will gradually wither away. Is that all that your life is going to be?

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Confidence comes from discipline and training.

My biggest criticism is how can people be so easily satisfied? Even people with talent.

If I love you, what business is it of yours?

If you’re always under the pressure of real identity, I think that is somewhat of a burden.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.

It seems like a lot of people seek their peace in things. And most of us are not even satisfied with the things we have… we always want more.

You accept that this civilisation could be abolished and life will begin later on after a few thousand years because that is something that has happened in the history of this planet. When you have peace in yourself and accept, then you are calm enough to do something, but if you are carried by despair there is no hope.

Be not simply good – be good for something.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

Not being afraid to be wrong – I had to learn how to do that.

I’ve always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

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

The thing about the truth is, not a lot of people can handle it.

The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.

True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self elements. There’s no separation between self and other, and everything is interconnected. Once you are aware of that you are no longer caught in the idea that you are a separate entity.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

As the father of eight children, I’m quite convinced that each individual arrives here with their own unique personality. We are intended here from an invisible held of infinite potentiality. That which has no form, has no boundaries – it’s the I that’s in the ever-changing body.

Right now, we don’t have a very good relation with creation.

A lot of times, people make other people responsible for their joy: ‚You’re not making me happy, you’re not doing this, you’re not doing that.‘