I never make conscious decisions.

Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.

To meditate means to go home to yourself. Then you know how to take care of the things that are happening inside you, and you know how to take care of the things that happen around you.

To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.

It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‚I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.‘ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and… the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

I never do anything that I don’t want to do.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

As president, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are.

Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.

Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

No person is important enough to make me angry.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

The image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.

Every day is a gift from God. There’s no guarantee of tomorrow, so that tells me to see the good in this day to make the most of it.

I think the discipline comes with turning that cellphone and Blackberry off and unplugging completely. You do that and you go through some withdrawals in the beginning. You start thinking, ‚Oh, do I need to do this? Do I need to do that?‘ You forget that we were doing just fine with the payphone.

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.

Don’t be afraid to see what you see.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

I don’t want to spend money the club doesn’t have; I don’t want to hold a player that doesn’t want to stay.

If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!

I think the best thing I ever did with my life was stand up and say I’ve got Alzheimer’s.

I can’t play bridge. I don’t play tennis. All those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn’t seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

Remember you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.

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

I’m stupid, I’m ugly, I’m dumb, I smell. Did I mention I’m stupid?

I’m one of them guys that tries to make everything the best of the best, so sometimes I’m out of control with it.

An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience.

The biggest mistake we made as a company was betting too much on HTML5.

What matters in the Sun-tzu universe are not positions of strength and power, but situations in which you have options, full of potential force.

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

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

It was completely fruitless to quarrel with the world, whereas the quarrel with oneself was occasionally fruitful and always, she had to admit, interesting.

I base a lot of decisions on my gut, and going with an independent label was a good one.

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

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.

We are in a far better position to observe instincts in animals or in primitives than in ourselves. This is due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to scrutinizing our own actions and to seeking rational explanations for them.

I am sure there’s going to be times when I do things wrong that no one’s going to like and everyone’s going to think I’m terrible and rubbish but I know I’m going to go through those times, and it’s just about understanding that that’s going to happen.

When you take your attention into the present moment, a certain alertness arises. You become more conscious of what’s around you, but also, strangely, a sense of presence that is both within and without.

Because in a split second, it’s gone.

I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.

Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.

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 realize who you live for, and who’s important to please, a lot of people will actually start living. I am never going to get caught up in that. I’m gonna look back on my life and say that I enjoyed it – and I lived it for me.

Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.

Meditation demands an astonishingly alert mind; it is the understanding of the totality of life in which every form of fragmentation has ceased.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

We need someone with superb judgement in their own right because, yes, a president can hire the best advisors on Earth, but I guarantee you this: Five advisors will give five different opinions. And it is the president – and the president alone – who always makes the final call.

And obviously, from our own personal point of view, the principal challenge is a personal challenge.

No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.

I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.