I had a period in my life where I decided that I would never be bored again and that, if I had any free time at all, I would make plans, and I would always be doing things. It actually was great for a year or so, but then I lost all of my friends.

Face your fears and doubts, and new worlds will open to you.

I don’t go to bed at 1 A.M. and wake up at 5 A.M. and say, ‚Let’s see if I can get this done today.‘

Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful.

I’m an introvert somewhat. There could be a room full of people, I’ll go stand in the corner.

I had the classic 40 meltdown. I did. It’s embarrassing. It was pretty funny. But then I recovered. To me, it was like a second adolescence. Hormonally, my body was changing, my mind was changing, and so my relationship to myself and the world around me came to this assault of finiteness.

Throughout my life, I’ve always been really close with girls and made friends with girls. And I’ve always been a really sickly, feminine person anyhow, so I thought I was gay for a while because I didn’t find any of the girls in my high school attractive at all.

A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there’s less of you.

I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that.

I’ve missed out on a lot of things, going out with friends.

If all you’re doing is grinding for the man, it’s going to burden you. Once you say, ‚Hey, I’m grinding for the man, but I’m putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy,‘ you’re working for you.

90 percent of my time is spent on 10 percent of the world.

Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back.

It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.

Gentleness doesn’t get work done unless you happen to be a hen laying eggs.

It’s more interesting for me to figure out how to be superior in areas where I’m naive, where I’m a novice.

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.

Vulnerability is basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.

Egos are never nice. I have been a victim of it a lot of times in my career. Whenever I have used it, I have failed.

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.

I change my mind a lot. I usually don’t agree with what I say very much. I’m an awful liar.

If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.

This happiness consisted of nothing else but the harmony of the few things around me with my own existence, a feeling of contentment and well-being that needed no changes and no intensification.

And above all things, never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.

It is fun to be in the same decade with you.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel.

The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don’t know nothing. I mean, that’s my life lesson.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Before finding music, I didn’t have too many aspirations. I wanted to hang out, make a little money from whatever I had to do.

I hear my friends and my mom tell me I’m special, but honestly, I still don’t get it.

Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.

To this day, some of my closest friends say, ‚Gaga, you know, everything’s great. You’re a singer; your dreams have come true.‘ But, still, when certain things are said to you over and over again as you’re growing up, it stays with you and you wonder if they’re true.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right.

The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.

I’m of the school of thought where if you can’t sort something out for yourself then no one can help you.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

For a young person, it is almost a sin, or at least a danger, to be too preoccupied with himself; but for the ageing person, it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

I had never been in charge of anything. I’d always worked for someone. I worked for a furniture warehouse. I did masonry. I always had a boss yelling at me. So I’d never been in charge of an organization.

Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance – the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it; better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

You can’t have it all, all at once. Who – man or woman – has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

I’m a day-to-day-type person.

I grew up with the sea, and poverty for me was sumptuous; then I lost the sea and found all luxuries gray and poverty unbearable.

Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.

I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.

The truth doesn’t hurt unless it ought to.

Thought can be so seductive and hypnotic that it absorbs your attention totally, so you become your thoughts.

As a vulnerability researcher, the greatest barrier I see is our low tolerance for vulnerability. We’re almost afraid to be happy. We feel like it’s inviting disaster.

There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time.

Once I realized that right thinking is vital to victorious living, I got more serious about thinking about what I was thinking about, and choosing my thoughts carefully.

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.