For many people who are so lost in their minds, so much involved in their thought processes, the only moments they have when they are not trapped in that is when they are relating to their animal, their pet.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.

When I was in my teens I had issues with OCD.

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.

Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.

O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!

We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal.

We should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the future; men of discernment deal only with the present moment.

Let go of yesterday.

There is something in the way that we are now, with our cell phones, and people are not looking at each other and not being in the moment with each other, that kids feel isolated.

As a shame researcher, I know that the very best thing to do in the midst of a shame attack is totally counterintuitive: Practice courage and reach out!

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.

I like some animals more than some people, some people more than some animals.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.

Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.

I think it’s very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything’s going to be all right, even when you’re not sure it is.

Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe.

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

It’s hard to practice compassion when we’re struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance.

Going to a therapist is not something you do when you’re growing up as a street kid in Toronto.

Remind yourself that the greatest technique for bringing peace into your life is to always choose being kind when you have a choice between being right or being kind.

Forget the past.

He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

When you get angry, your options narrow.

I have a terrifying long list of fears. Literally everything – diseases, spiders… and people getting tired of me.

I’m not a big fan of psychoanalysis: I think if you have mental problems what you need are good pills. But I do think that if you have thinks that bother you, things that are unresolved, the more that you talk about them, write about them, the less serious they become.

I never deny. I never contradict. I sometimes forget.

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

Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.

I was a grade B housewife, maybe a B minus. But when I got time to write, I would be unable to finish a sentence. I had anxiety attacks. Partly it was a way of personifying the situation because I couldn’t breathe. I was surrounded by people and by duties. I was a housewife and the children’s mother, and I was judged on how I performed those roles.

Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

It was because the chimps are so eye-catching, so like us and teach us so much that my work was recognised worldwide.

By imposing too great a responsibility, or rather, all responsibility, on yourself, you crush yourself.

I used to meditate all the time in bed. That was when I was raising my daughter, and I’d get her up and off to school, and then I would go back to bed and meditate. And then I would do the same in the evening, and that was very good for that period because I had so many things to juggle as a single mother.

I just always wanted to study human behavior because every psychologist that I would talk to would tell me I was bipolar, and I know I’m not bipolar, so I had to perform a psychoanalysis on myself to find out that I have unresolved grief.

In Germany, they all thought I was a bit mental, very emotional.

If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane, If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane, If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane.

Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.

You can be obsessed with the bad things people say and the good things; either way, you’re obsessed with yourself, and I’m not – you can become unhinged so easily.

Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.

Nothing can be by itself alone, no one can be by himself or herself alone, everyone has to inter-be with every one else. That is why, when you look outside, around you, you can see yourself.

Whenever I make music, it reflects where I’m at mentally.

I’ve suffered through depression and anxiety my entire life.

If a man be gloomy let him keep to himself. No one has the right to go croaking about society, or what is worse, looking as if he stifled grief.

Be of love a little more careful than of anything.

I admire people who destroy themselves.

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

Simplify, simplify.

Life is grim, and we don’t have to be grim all the time.

What keeps me up at night? Anxiety. Anxiety, the inability to go to sleep, it’s quite literally that.

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

If someone decides they’re not going to be happy, it’s not your problem. You don’t have to spend your time and energy trying to cheer up someone who has already decided to stay in a bad mood. Believe it or not, you can actually hurt people by playing into their self-pity.