Don’t just let the devil use your mind as a garbage dump.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

Don’t get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that – if you dare. But get older because it’s fun!

I’m not a bad person.

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

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.

He knows my limitations and where I’m a good wife and a good mom.

When the mind is empty, silent, when it is in a state of complete negation – which is not blankness, nor the opposite of being positive, but a totally different state in which all thought has ceased – only then is it possible for that which is unnameable to come into being.

Don’t let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don’t whine. You can be brought low, that’s OK, but don’t be reduced by them. Just say, ‚That’s life.‘

If you don’t feel safe as a child, you can’t learn.

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.

I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.

Being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical.

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.

I have to be alone very often. I’d be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel.

We must, all of us, learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise.

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

I think I’ve got wiser.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, ‚I’m a representative.‘

A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others.

Never let yesterday use up too much of today.

I don’t digest things with my mind.

We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

I have lost my mental faculties but am perfectly well.

Total relaxation is the secret to enjoying sitting meditation. I sit with my spine upright, but not rigid; and I relax all the muscles in my body.

When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do well, that’s Memoirs.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

It is always your next move.

Wow, I get to wake up again? Ok. You have to make good with what you’ve got.

I was brought up to believe that the worst thing you could do was ‚call attention to yourself,‘ or ‚think you were smart.‘ My mother was an exception to this rule and was punished by the early onset of Parkinson’s disease.

I put cocoa butter all over my face and my iconic belly and my arms and legs. Why live rough? Live smooth.

The world can criticize me, but l can always criticize it back.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.

One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what’s really happening to me, even if it’s a tough pill to swallow for people around me… I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.

Dread, which is closely related to fear, steals the ability to enjoy ordinary life and makes people anxious about the future. It keeps them from looking forward to the next day, the next month, or the next decade.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

Responsibility is the price of freedom.

Stay active. Read the Word. Worship with other believers. Continue to give. Keep learning and growing. Your faith will be unleashed!

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

I’ve learned a lot since I was a new mother. My approach to struggle and shame now is to talk to yourself like you’d talk to someone you love and reach out to tell your story.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

I was married a few times, and one of my husbands was jealous of me writing.

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

God enters by a private door into every individual.

A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn’t write. I started again at 16 and have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.

I was called really horrible, profane names very loudly in front of huge crowds of people, and my schoolwork suffered at one point.

My lighter, more superficial side will always steal a march on the deeper side and therefore always win. You can’t imagine how often I’ve tried to push away this Anne, which is only half of what is known as Anne – to beat her down, hide her.

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.

My message isn’t perfectly defined. I have, as a human being, fallen to peer pressure.

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

The power of our thoughts may never be measured or appreciated, but it became obvious to me as a young boy that there was value and power in being aware of my thoughts and how I expressed myself.

A man must now swallow more belief than he can digest.