I am a part of everything that I have read.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

The learned is happy, nature to explore; The fool is happy, that he knows no more.

You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.

He who knows himself is enlightened.

I know, to banish anger altogether from one’s breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God’s grace.

If you’re performing music that is not who you are or where you’re at, it is painful. It’s painful for the performer and for the audience.

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.

Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, a possession for all time.

I was a very keen reader of science fiction.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.

The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life’s wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion.

You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.

We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy.

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

If you live only in one culture for the first 20 years of your life, you become conditioned without knowing it.

Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger.

Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.

But blind to former as to future fate, what mortal knows his pre-existent state?

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

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

Pretension is a poor joke that you play on yourself. Snap out of it. Recognise your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Real achievement is liking what you see in the mirror every morning.

The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.

A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us.

How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilised men.

I let the American people down.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Love is a state of being.

Just because something didn’t work out your way, or somebody disappointed you, that does not change who you are.

Truth is what works.

Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

I don’t have any secrets I need kept any more.

Only the educated are free.

We must accept what science tells us, that man was born from the earth. But, more logical than the scientists who lecture us, we must carry this lesson to its conclusion: that is to say, accept that man was born entirely from the world – not only his flesh and bones but his incredible power of thought.

The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

Autobiographies are only useful as the lives you read about and analyze may suggest to you something that you may find useful in your own journey through life.

I grew up as this very carefree, happy kid then things turned darker for me. Maybe it was because I saw that the world wasn’t as happy a place as I had hoped it would be for me.

I just feel so much more comfortable and confident every game I play.

The reason that I’m here at all is because of my relationship with my family and their encouragement of me to be a musician and to work hard. As long as I stay there in that space, I can do anything. That’s my truth.

I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know – and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.

Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.

I think ‚The Color Purple‘ is so bursting with love, the need for connection, the showing of the need for connection around the globe.

I don’t know what drives me to succeed.

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

Why was I born with such contemporaries?

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

Forget the past.

I’ve done some analysis of the biblical stories as part of my psychological work. I knew that I had more to do, and every time I’ve done it, it’s been extremely valuable. It makes me a better teacher because I have a richer understanding of cultural history.

I resigned from the Marine Corps and flying in 1974, even though I loved them both. I quit because I no longer wanted to fight for peace. Instead, I believe we can build a more sustainable peace by working for prosperity.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

I don’t believe in ‚thinking‘ old. Although I’ve transitioned through many bodies – a baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, mid-life and older adult – my spirit is unchanged. I support my body with exercise, my mind with reading and writing, and my spirit with the knowing that I am part of the Divine source of all life.

When you face a ‚performance‘ that might provoke the ‚I’m scared‘ response, choose love and approach your opportunity as a chance to dance with God. It’s more fun than ‚Dancing with the Stars!‘

No school of philosophy has ever solved this question of whether being determines consciousness or the other way around. It may be a false antithesis.