I never make conscious decisions.

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

Loving others always costs us something and requires effort. And you have to decide to do it on purpose. You can’t wait for a feeling to motivate you.

If you want to have sustained joy, you have to not only make sure that you think right, but you also have to make decisions now that are going to guarantee some joy in the future.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

Forgiveness is not a feeling – it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before God. It’s a quality decision that won’t be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.

I’m not this horrible, evil person.

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.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

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.

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

Really, who you are is defined by the people who you know – not even the people that you know, but the people you spend time with and the people that you love and the people that you work with. I guess we show your friends in your profile, but that’s kind of different from the information you put in your profile.

The more extensive a man’s knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be his power of knowing what to do.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

When you’re outside, and everything is highland, it’s like nature has its own sound, and that’s one of my favorite sounds. I really loved sitting still silently outside, in a tree or in a bush, to just think.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.

What’s the good of drawing in the next breath if all you do is let it out and draw in another?

Do the best you can, and don’t take life too serious.

I’m an emotional person. Sometimes I can’t help it.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

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

Don’t ever criticize yourself. Don’t go around all day long thinking, ‚I’m unattractive, I’m slow, I’m not as smart as my brother.‘ God wasn’t having a bad day when he made you… If you don’t love yourself in the right way, you can’t love your neighbour. You can’t be as good as you are supposed to be.

Your timeless self does not age and has no fear of the future. Contemplate your physical self and all its possessions, and practice laughing peacefully at it all.

Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.

I don’t really read a lot of newspapers. I don’t pay attention to what is being said or written about me. I’ve had lots of experiences in the past when I got too much into it. That sort of diverts your focus.

Mindfulness practices enhance the connection between our body, our mind and everything else that is around us. Mindful living is the key to understanding our struggles with weight and to empowering us to control our weight.

I don’t live in the past at all; I’m always wanting to do something new. I make a point of constantly trying to forget and get things out of my mind.

I’m not intelligent. I’m not arrogant. I’m just like the people who read my books. I used to have a jazz club, and I made the cocktails and I made the sandwiches. I didn’t want to become a writer – it just happened.

If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions.

True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

I give opinions, not advice.

The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

Some days I totally appreciate everything that’s happening to me, and some days I feel everyone’s waiting for me to mess up.

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

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.

I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.

Never take anything for granted.

Seeing myself on the screen makes me cringe. I understand that I am that way – pouty.

I’m tired of fighting. I’ve always known that I can’t be an action star all my life.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

To know anything well involves a profound sensation of ignorance.

To me, business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.

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.

I think I became more productive through not having children. I never really had the desire to have them. My husband didn’t want them either, so it worked out well.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

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

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. Far the greatest things grow by God’s law out of the smallest. But to live your life, you must discipline it.

A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.

Meditation is difficult for many people because their thoughts are always on some distant object or place. One form of meditation is to label the thought as it appears and then choose to let it go.

I’d like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don’t have misconceptions – they understand. I believe that.

It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over because there’s nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? 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.

When you’re in a leadership role, you can never please all of the people all of the time. There’s also a lot of responsibility that goes along with it that others may not realize.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.