I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.

I’m a big believer in doing things that make you uncomfortable. So, we live in a world where we want to be as comfortable as we can. And we wonder why we have no growth. We wonder why – when the smallest thing in our life gets difficult – we wonder why we cower and we run away.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.

Everyone assumes I practise all of my own laws but I don’t. I think anybody who did would be a horrible ugly person to be around.

My one big regret is that I didn’t play on for ten more years.

There’s room for role models who make mistakes.

I sometimes ask people, ‚Can you be aware of your own presence? Not the thoughts that you’re having, not the emotions that you’re having, but the very presence of your very being?‘ You become aware of your own presence by sensing the entire energy field in your body that is alive. And that is the totality of your presence.

I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.

When you are full of pride on the inside, it makes you stiff, stubborn, and creates strife with others.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.

Never take anything for granted.

The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

The idea of recognising your strengths and using them in as versatile a way as you can is cool to me.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

I’m aware that, whatever the circumstances, there will always be speculation about me.

My parents were dealing with evictions and repossessions and electricity getting shut off, and I just realized that I had to get it together.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Vanity is great motivation, to be fair.

I don’t really know that much about love, it turns out.

Life is a matter of really tough choices.

To deal with individual human needs at the everyday level can be noble sometimes.

I’ve done the bad-boy thing. It was fun for a good three months. But the thing about bad boys is, you have to keep in mind, you’re never gonna marry a bad boy.

I feel that I’ve done what I wanted to do, and that makes me feel fairly content.

A man’s own judgment should be the final appeal in all that relates to himself.

Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

It’s true that I’ve never had a burning desire to rebel against my parents.

Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.

I’m just like you – I want to be a good human being. I’m doing my best, and I’m working at it. And I’m trying to be a Christian. I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‚I’m a Christian.‘ I always think, ‚Already? You’ve already got it?‘ I’m working at it. And at my age, I’ll still be working at it at 96.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

The roots of the problems we face in the world, in our national life, and in our family and personal lives are spiritual.

You can be happy where you are.

The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do?

The older you get, the better you get.

The more people I reach, the more people there are that have opinions about me. Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

I really have had to swallow my own prejudice at times.

When you seek the presence of your creative Spirit and are filled with passion about virtually everything you undertake, you’ll successfully remove the roadblocks from your life and enjoy the active presence of Spirit.

The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

When I was young, I could not imagine being old. My mother said, and the doctor confirmed, that I had an unusual amount of energy; and it followed me into young adulthood.

It is hard sometimes to always be at the centre of attention, but when you talk about me you also have to talk about the climate.

It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, – superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.

Choose people who lift you up.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.

I don’t want to just revolve. I want to evolve. As a man, as a human, as a father, as a lover.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

My dad seemed comfortable with his decision to be a ‚have-not,‘ but I knew that I wasn’t.

Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the ‚leaders‘ must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.