I have trust issues with allowing other individuals to know my innermost secrets for fear of how I may be viewed. Everyone has this.

I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

I don’t see myself as a philosopher. That’s awfully boring.

Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline; simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.

I know I do not exaggerate, unconsciously and unintentionally, the scantiness of my resources and the difficulty of my life… I know that, but for the mercy of God, I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a vagabond.

When I was a boy, I always saw myself as a hero in comic books and in movies. I grew up believing this dream.

I wanted to write a book that talked about the emotions of children, which is the rainbow. We all have moods. We talk about being blue when we’re sad, and being yellow when we’re cowards, and when we’re mad, we’re red.

Nixon represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character almost every other country in the world has learned to fear and despise.

Men walk this tightrope where any sign of weakness illicits shame, and so they’re afraid to make themselves vulnerable for fear of looking weak.

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

Fear seems to have many causes. Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of being hurt, and so on, but ultimately all fear is the ego’s fear of death, of annihilation. To the ego, death is always just around the corner. In this mind-identified state, fear of death affects every aspect of your life.

I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man.

On September 11 2001, America felt its vulnerability even to threats that gather on the other side of the Earth. We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat from any source that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America.

An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.

I want to let you in on a little secret: I don’t always feel like I’m a success. That’s right. There are plenty of times when I feel like I’ve just totally messed up and failed to connect with the people I’m trying to communicate with.

Breathe in deeply to bring your mind home to your body. Then look at, or think of, the person triggering this emotion: With mindfulness, you can see that she is unhappy, that she is suffering. You can see her wrong perceptions. You can see that she is not beautiful when she says things that are unkind.

It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.

I’m afraid that reason will triumph and that the world will become a place where anyone who doesn’t fit that will become unnecessary.

I was raised in a family where vulnerability was barely tolerated: no training wheels on our bicycles, no goggles in the pool, just get it done. And so I grew up not only with discomfort about my own vulnerability, I didn’t care for it in other people either.

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.

I’ve always felt heroic about my life… As a child, I remember little girls in the playground moaning about how boys could do more than they could. I didn’t think that was the case at all. My parents didn’t treat me as a girl.

Some people reckoned that I looked healthier when I was bigger but I had terrible skin and no energy.

We are looking for happiness and running after it in such a way that creates anger, fear and discrimination. So when you attend a retreat, you have a chance to look at the deep roots of this pollution of the collective energy that is unwholesome.

Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action.

In the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don’t kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker.

The moment someone asks you to do something you don’t have the time or inclination to do is fraught with vulnerability.

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

I have this feeling that the world is not in balance. And people are afraid, but we’re also starting to be really brave.

How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me.

When even one American – who has done nothing wrong – is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth – then all Americans are in peril.

I’ve been afraid of people playing their life away with too many toys.

I didn’t like the way I looked in pictures – when I saw myself on a digital camera, I was like, ‚Eesh.‘

We of the sinking middle class may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose.

There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.

It is curious how instinctively one protects the image of oneself from idolatry or any other handling that could make it ridiculous, or too unlike the original to be believed any longer.

It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

My ‚fear‘ is my substance, and probably the best part of me.

I’m afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.

Faith activates God – Fear activates the Enemy.

For a long time, I thought I was ugly and disfigured. This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults that were not intended.

Most damage that others do us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion.

I was scared many times on Everest, but this is all part of the challenge. When I fell down a crevasse, it was pretty scary.

I hesitate to use a pathologizing label, but underneath the so-called narcissistic personality is definitely shame and the paralyzing fear of being ordinary.

Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them.

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

Funk, I don’t think I have anything to do with funk. I’ve never considered myself funky.

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable.

Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.

We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.

I have found it easier to identify with the characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened of life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really.

Fear has its use but cowardice has none.

I’m the type person, my safe place to be emotional is the booth.

We are what we believe we are.

Overcoming fear is the first step to success for entrepreneurs. The winners all exemplify that, and the hard work and commitment they have shown underlines what is needed to set up a business.

We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.

There’s a long way to fall when you pretend that you’re so far away from the earth, far away from reality, floating in a bubble that’s protected by fame or success. It’s scary, and it’s the thing I fear the most: to be swallowed up by that bubble. It can be poison to you, fame.

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.