Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

I’d like to be known for more than being the guy in the big suit.

We should learn to accept that change is truly the only thing that’s going on always, and learn to ride with it and enjoy it.

Always do whatever’s next.

I worked out early on to give up things I couldn’t do well at all.

I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.

There ought to be an artistic depot where the artist need only hand in his artwork in order to receive what he asks for. As things are, one must be half a business man, and how can one understand – good heavens! – that’s what I really call troublesome.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!

My father, who was jailed for stealing on more than one occasion, just abandoned his fatherly responsibilities and disappeared. I grew up working from the time I was nine years of age. Money was a big issue everywhere I lived.

I use a stream-of-consciousness approach; if you don’t censor yourself, you end up with what you’re most concerned about, but you haven’t filtered it through your conscious mind. Then you craft it.

It’s hard to improve public education – that’s clear.

Losing is tough.

Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.

Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success.

I know what it feels like to struggle to get the education that you need.

When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with it fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.

I suppose for a very long time I’ve been trying to understand how it is that people might make sense out of their lives and make meaning and make their lives meaningful in the face of the trouble that life brings.

A woman has the age she deserves.

Whenever you’re going through a tough time, generally, you become more compassionate, you become softer, you become more thoughtful, kinder. These are all spiritual qualities that will help you to align yourself with God and God consciousness rather than with a split fear-based consciousness.

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.

Oh, God, I struggle with low self-esteem all the time! I think everyone does. I have so much wrong with me, it’s unbelievable!

If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

I always try to do as much as I can do. I’m never a person that does not enough, because I’d regret not doing enough and think I probably could have done more. I probably go too far and have to reel myself back in, which works in some things, and other things it doesn’t work.

Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves – and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either.

I’m the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that’s horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.

I still learn, but I think it’s the best thing in life to have a kid.

I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I’m still fanatical, but now I’m a little less fanatical.

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.

The advice I’ve been giving to people all my life – that you may not be interested in the dialectic but the dialectic is interested in you; you can’t give up politics, it won’t give you up – was the advice I should have been taking myself.

Nothing is so discouraging to an actor than to have to work for long hours upon hours in brightly lighted interior sets.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

I was sure I’d set the world on fire, and it was hard for a young feller like me to realize the truth – that I hadn’t set the world on fire, and I was totally unprepared to handle the consequences if ‚The Big Trail‘ had been a success and launched me as a star.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.

Hollywood is not suited for me, and I am not suited for it.

We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.

The problem with me, as far as getting married and having a family, is that my comedy is so important to me. So I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good a dad as my dad.

To some extent I happily don’t know what I’m doing. I feel that it’s an artist’s responsibility to trust that.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your ass.

I think everybody’s trying to get to a place in themselves where they conquer what they was afraid of; they achieve some of their life goals, kept their word about what they were trying to do.

When things are really dismal, you can laugh, or you can cave in completely.

Somewhere deep down there’s a decent man in me, he just can’t be found.

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.

I liked his ability to deal with a lot of the negativity that surrounded him. Even though he was in a world that he didn’t want to be in, he still saw the bigger picture.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

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.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you’re changing, emotionally as well as physically?

Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

We grow older, but we do not change. We become more sophisticated, but at bottom we continue to resemble our young selves, eager to listen to the next story and the next, and the next.

I’ve been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It’s natural.

I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn’t think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older, you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that’s happening to me.

Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you’re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.

Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.

Intelligent people should learn from their experiences. With people on the street, the bad experience has beaten them.

The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company.