I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment. I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place.

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

In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.

I’m no leader; I’m a little humble follower.

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

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

Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, ‚I’m not worthy of being written up in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth.‘ Timidity keeps people from their good. They are afraid to say, ‚Yes, I deserve it.‘

The question is not, ‚Do you have a problem?‘ The question is, ‚Does the problem have you?‘

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

I don’t carry the burden of the past or the madness of the future. I live in the present.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately… you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you.

Meditation has been a loyal friend to me. It has helped me write my books.

When I was very young I was sort of floored by the fact that my mother and my father and everyone I knew was going to die one day, and myself too. I had a sort of a philosophical crisis. I couldn’t believe that we were mortal.

I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you got your back turned.

Oh, God, I struggle with low self-esteem all the time! I think everyone does. I have so much wrong with me, it’s unbelievable!

When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.

Meditation is a great way to keep my body well-centered while juggling shooting schedules and recording sessions.

Everything I read about hitting a midlife crisis was true. I had such a struggle letting go of youthful things and learning how to exist and have enthusiasm while settling into the comfort of an older age.

It’s hard for anybody who’s been with me not to feel starved for affection when I’m making love to my ideas. Maybe it’s not meant for me to settle down and be married.

How do you know what it’s like to be stupid if you’ve never been smart?

I always wanted a family.

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

People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgments, guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

I’m not critic-proof, and I still take it personally, but I take it less personally now.

Truthfully, without over-egging it, as I often do, the library and journalism, those things made me who I am.

Many a man thinks he is patient when, in reality, he is indifferent.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

I’m not happy all the time, and I wouldn’t want to be because that would make me a shallow person. But I do try to find the good in everybody.

Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn’t.

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.

When I was making the early stuff, I never expected it to be so big. I was in my own kind of bubble. I never wanted to tour; I just wanted to create music and make a diary I could put out into the world. And sometimes, I became the characters.

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.

If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act.

It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

Eventually you get to this point where you understand what you want to do and get across and sound like.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.

I’m on record that it didn’t really traumatize me to do away with some people.

I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.

Vanity is but the surface.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.

I’m crazy, but I’m not too crazy.

To live is to find out for yourself what is true, and you can do this only when there is freedom, when there is continuous revolution inwardly, within yourself.

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.

As I followed my dream – stayed in-Spirit, that is, inspired – I made more money in the first year after I gave up my employment than I had made in the previous 35 years of my life.

The best part about being in your thirties is you know what works for you.

Ah! yes, I know: those who see me rarely trust my word: I must look too intelligent to keep it.

The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.

We learn martial arts as helping weakness. You never fight for people to get hurt. You’re always helping people.