Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.

Consider a tree for a moment. As beautiful as trees are to look at, we don’t see what goes on underground – as they grow roots. Trees must develop deep roots in order to grow strong and produce their beauty. But we don’t see the roots. We just see and enjoy the beauty. In much the same way, what goes on inside of us is like the roots of a tree.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist.

Choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude is going to determine how you’re going to live your life.

I believe God gives you the grace to do what you need to do.

You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.

My father was a negative person. He actually taught me to be negative, if that makes any sense. I remember him saying: ‚You know there’s no point in expecting anything good to happen because it won’t.‘ I grew up in such a negative atmosphere.

Old men are dangerous: it doesn’t matter to them what is going to happen to the world.

What you are comes to you.

We should not say that one man’s hour is worth another man’s hour, but rather that one man during an hour is worth just as much as another man during an hour. Time is everything, man is nothing: he is at the most time’s carcass.

After all, life hasn’t much to offer except youth, and I suppose for older people, the love of youth in others.

Quitting doesn’t enter my mind.

The call of death is a call of love. Death can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation.

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?

We are in the throes of a transition where every publication has to think of their digital strategy.

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.

All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.

What’s real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.

Faith is the complete reliance on the power and goodness of Spirit and the firm belief that you are always connected to this goodness. Always affirm your faith and not your doubt.

Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.

I had a period in my life where I decided that I would never be bored again and that, if I had any free time at all, I would make plans, and I would always be doing things. It actually was great for a year or so, but then I lost all of my friends.

There is nothing so stable as change.

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.

Our body is dependant on Heaven and Heaven on the Spirit.

What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

We should never let material things get ahead of God or become so important in our lives that we can’t walk away from them if He tells us to. Anything you own that has a hold on you is a problem.

Keep in mind that no matter how perfectly you get your life in order, you will never be rid of all your problems. Problems are a way of life, always have been, always will be. But how you elect to view those problems is all up to you.

We were born with a capacity to grow, love, marry, and form families.

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

A pessimist? That’s a person who has been intimately acquainted with an optimist.

I don’t know the law, the kind of law of quantity and quality, but I think the opportunity of people being able to express themselves and to have the means of production is a great thing. It’s also changing how we’re telling stories.

No matter how hard we might wish, we will not be able to transform China’s behavior overnight.

I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.

When I have a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.

You can have religion with spirituality. You can also have religion without spirituality.

The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

Being part of a community with a church at its centre and singin‘ hymns is a great thing to do.

A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.

Transformation literally means going beyond your form.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?

The Bible says that God has a reason for keeping us here; if He didn’t, He would take us to Heaven far sooner.

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

My public is growing up just as I am. After all, I’m not 19 anymore and if I stick with the sex bit, who will be paying to see me when I’m 50?

The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.

Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.

Oh, yes; you Virginians shed barrels of perspiration while standing off at a distance and superintending the work your slaves do for you. It is different with us. Here it is every fellow for himself, or he doesn’t get there.

Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.

Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.

As long as you blame someone or something else – something outside you that’s bigger than you are – as the source of your problems, the problems won’t get solved.

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

I’m always disappointed when people don’t live up to their potential. I know that a number of people look down on themselves and consequently on everybody who looks like them. But that, too, can change.

Yeah, it’s pretty hard not to be completely cynical these days.

Partition is bad. But whatever is past is past. We have only to look to the future.

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.