Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.

Those parts of history that would undermine the vision of the Left – which prevails in our education system from elementary school to postgraduate study – are not likely to get much attention.

I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens. Not just to the person or persons for whom I’m praying, but also something wonderful happens to me. I’m grateful that I’m heard.

I think our capacity for wholeheartedness can never be greater than our willingness to be broken-hearted. It means engaging with the world from a place of vulnerability and worthiness.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.

But if I have a lot of imagination, I could tell myself whatever I wanted, you know. I handle myself quite well. I’m kind of fascist with myself, you know. There’s no discussion. There is an order. You follow it.

And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension.

Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.

I suppose that’s one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment.

Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.

To compromise simply means that you go a tiny bit below what you know is right.

Meditation is a state of mind which looks at everything with complete attention, totally, not just parts of it. And no one can teach you how to be attentive. If any system teaches you how to be attentive, then you are attentive to the system, and that is not attention.

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

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!

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.

Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?

The real power of the Buddha was that he had so much love. He saw people trapped in their notions of small separate self, feeling guilty or proud of that self, and he offered revolutionary teachings that resounded like a lion’s roar, like a great rising tide, helping people to wake up and break free from the prison of ignorance.

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Information is not knowledge.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

I can move any crowd.

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

The gigantic tension before the shooting of an arrow, and the total relaxation seconds later, is my way of connecting to the universe.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.

Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them.

No one person controls Microsoft. The board and the shareholders decide whether they want to have me as CEO.

One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

I’m very aware and very conscious of the path I chose in life, and very aware of the path I didn’t choose.

If I don’t run for president, we’ll all be OK.

Eight years involved with the nuclear industry have taught me that when nothing can possible go wrong and every avenue has been covered, then is the time to buy a house on the next continent.

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.

Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.

I always tell people that if I move anywhere it would be Toronto.

If you make up your own mind, you can only blame yourself.

For all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

Control and surrender have to be kept in balance. That’s what surfers do – take control of the situation, then be carried, then take control. In the last few thousand years, we’ve become incredibly adept technically. We’ve treasured the controlling part of ourselves and neglected the surrendering part.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

I think Buddhism should open the door of psychology and healing to penetrate more easily into the Western world.

My friends ask me if I want more kids, and I always say yes, I want more; it’s the best thing you can have in your life.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors.

In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

Let’s not burn the universities yet. After all, the damage they do might be worse.

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

I’m substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency. We have a situation in the U.S. where the White House and Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be. They’re sort of playing a game and NASA is the shuttlecock that they’re hitting back and forth.

The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

I had to make a choice at one point in my life, of missing films or missing my children. It was a very easy decision to make because I missed my children so very much.

Remember, you can always stoop and pick up nothing.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.