I think I hate cynicism more than anything else. It’s the curse of our age, and I want to avoid it at all costs.

Peace is liberty in tranquillity.

There’s a silly notion that failure’s not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

If someone decides they’re not going to be happy, it’s not your problem. You don’t have to spend your time and energy trying to cheer up someone who has already decided to stay in a bad mood. Believe it or not, you can actually hurt people by playing into their self-pity.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

Everyone knows nowadays that people ‚have complexes‘. What is not so well known, though far more important theoretically, is that complexes can have us.

Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.

I can’t keep somebody from being a star, and I can’t make somebody a star, and nobody can.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy, and people say, ‚What are we going to do?‘ but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing.

We live in ugly times.

There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

Freedom is what everyone wants – to be able to act and live with freedom. But the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline.

I was never particularly fond of my voice.

Meditation has been a loyal friend to me. It has helped me write my books.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

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.

Physical comforts cannot subdue mental suffering, and if we look closely, we can see that those who have many possessions are not necessarily happy. In fact, being wealthy often brings even more anxiety.

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

I think a certain amount of stress in life is good. The stress of just working, which takes effort – I think it keeps you going.

A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.

I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and… I believe in miracles.

It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.

I love to play. And fortunately, I don’t know a lot of musicians that suck. I know a bunch of really good ones, and they’re always up for playing.

I didn’t get trained by the school system like other kids, and when I did concentrate on learning, my mind was cluttered and locked by the programming of the system.

You’re not a product of your nature. That is your genetic makeup or your nurture, the things that have happened to you. Of course those things affect you powerfully, but they do not determine you.

I fear that there are too many priesthood bearers who have done little or nothing to develop their ability to access the powers of Heaven.

I think we need more idiot control.

Once you start doing only what you’ve already proven you can do, you’re on the road to death.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

You might be tough, but you can only be so tough for so long, you know what I mean? The brain can only take so much damage. The body can only take so much damage.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

The components of anxiety, stress, fear, and anger do not exist independently of you in the world. They simply do not exist in the physical world, even though we talk about them as if they do.

We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

For me, it’s about the way I carry myself and the way I treat other people. My relationship and how I feel about God and what He does for me, is something deeply personal. It’s where I came from, my family, I was brought up in a religious household and that’s very important to me.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

Nothing can resist the person who smiles at life – I don’t mean the ironic and disillusioned smile of my grandfather, but the triumphant smile of the person who knows that he will survive, or that at least he will be saved by what seems to be destroying him.

People don’t care about what someone says about you in a movie – or even what you say, right? They care about what you build. And if you can make something that makes people’s life better, then that’s something that’s really good.

I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

I get impatient with people working on a film that have their head in their hands like it’s the most complicated thing in the world.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

Put it this way: If I asked, ‚How’s business?‘ and you say, ‚Boomin‘ or ‚Amazing,‘ I already know the answer.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life.

It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.

Little things affect little minds.

In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.

It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

I’m not going to change the world. You’re not going to change the world. But we can help – we can all help.

I like gaps; all my stories have gaps. It seems this is the way people’s lives present themselves.