I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.

Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

I was lousy in school. Real screwed-up. A moron. I was antisocial and didn’t bother with the other kids. A really bad student. I didn’t have any brains. I didn’t know what I was doing there. That’s why I became an actor.

I have made the mistaken assumption – and I will attempt to be better at this – of thinking that because somebody is on Twitter and is attacking me that it is open season. And that is my mistake.

I walk tall; I got a tall attitude.

A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body – the wishbone.

We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.

To those whose talents are above mediocrity, the highest subjects may be announced. To those who are below mediocrity, the highest subjects may not be announced.

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself; but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

I think I’m like most people – we fear the unknown and the things that have yet to come to pass, which are the very things that don’t deserve to be feared. When you give God complete control, it’s very hard not to be fearless.

Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.

Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.

I understand aggressiveness in only one way: being prepared to hurt yourself, not someone else.

I’m sure I’ve changed my mind about something. Inevitably, when we grow up – as we get more experience and wiser. Well, I’ve changed my mind about some food that I didn’t like when I was young.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me.

What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

It is a most delightful reflection that if I come to the throne of God in prayer, I may feel a thousand defects, but yet there is hope. I usually feel more dissatisfied with my prayers than with anything else I do.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

As long as your intentions are solid and about growth and progression and being productive and not being idle, then you’re doing good in my book.

Responsibility, I believe, accrues through privilege.

Observe all men, thyself most.

If you have the insight of non-self, if you have the insight of impermanence, you should make that insight into a concentration that you keep alive throughout the day. Then what you say, what you think, and what you do will then be in the light of that wisdom and you will avoid making mistakes and creating suffering.

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.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

I was so ashamed of who I was.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.

Getting out of bed is like the foundation of the discipline, and I think it carries over into everything else.

‚Happiness‘ is a pointless goal.

Fame is ultimately about the cycles of desire and how to do away with them or manage them well.

By taking responsibility for how you choose to respond to anything or anyone, you’re aligning yourself with the beautiful dance of life.

Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.

The relationship to one’s fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one’s striving.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

Start your diet during a period of optimism and happiness.

You are victors, not victims!

Chemotherapy isn’t good for you. So when you feel bad, as I am feeling now, you think, ‚Well that is a good thing because it’s supposed to be poison. If it’s making the tumor feel this queasy, then I’m OK with it.‘

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

I don’t know how to live good. I only know how to suffer.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

I’m not talent. Not considered ‚talent‘ by Lifetime. I’d like to say I’m their savior, but that would be cocky.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will – his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.

By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

If you get your ego in your way, you will only look to other people and circumstances to blame.

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.